A God-awful Small Affair

The rise of dubstep has been a little bit unwelcome for me. I'd quite happily assert that the average piece of this genre I've heard is a case of people wanting to hear something good, and since the majority of it violates the regulations and conventions of classical or even popular music, it's easy to get away with that. But it's more of a placebo than a cure. The majority I've heard is repetitive, soulless, bland cack and it's only obvious that the genre should be kicked into others in order to give it a direction: M.I.A. borrowed the unusual sounds for her aggressive shtick; others have taken beats for garage or dance music. The latter category contains current UK dubstep queen, Katy B. Opener 'Power On Me' is a pretty solid start, bringing a fresh new direction to the pretty stale and turgid UK garage scene that never really got anywhere in the early 2000s, thankfully. Brien's voice is subtle but quite soulful, less whiny than I've heard on s...

I have a big pile-up of requests and own personal interests to review but have scarcely given them any listening attention, so instead I'll turn back to something from February I wasn't particularly sure on until recently. Regular followers of this blog will see that last week I pointed out the certain 'Britishness' about North-East bands; a slight brusqueness in their lyricism, set to typically British sounds. Well another case in point for this would be Frankie and the Heartstrings, a band that can't quite possibly be as bad as their haircuts, their name, styling and album sleeve an immediate hint at a 50s revival of contemptuous cool and rock's core aggressive stance. Opener 'Photograph' spits out with angst and the pursuit of a girl, whilst guitars twang and basslines thud with a universally-pleasing resonance; the rhythm rapidly increasing with furtiveness to a not-altogether perfectly executed crescendo. 'Ungrateful' however thrusts various...

In 2008 the Fleet Foxes launched onto the music scene with their eponymous debut, landing themselves #1 positions in end-of-year reviews from the likes of Pitchfork, The Times and Mojo. Their unique brand of baroque-fused folk struck a chord with many, and the time has now come for them to follow that success up. In May they will release 'Helplessness Blues', the title track for which they recently released as a free download. The opening track 'Montezuma' is a slow repeat of their signature sound - the version I have unfortunately riddled with a few technical glitches - a minimalist and pensive reflection on life and impending death. In dirth or in excess /Both the slave and the empress/ Will return to the dirt I guess/ Naked as when they came. There's a slight rockabilly tune to 'Bedouin Dress', a slight threat to Robin's claim that the record will be "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". The groove is certainly here, a Garfunkelia...

In over ten years since their last studio album, the music scene has changed considerably in the Human League's favour. With acts such as Pet Shop Boys and New Order rightly seen as the legends that they are, the time is right for The Human League to capitalise on an electronically-motivated industry with the same gusto they managed to innovate 30 years ago. The second single and first track from the project, 'Never Let Me Go', is an autotuned taster of what's to come - liberally poured synths and trickery that amply picks up where they left off. I personally find the track a little too robotic and soulless to evoke any real pleasant emotions or make me want to dance, but the following 'Night People' more than makes up for it. A moody series of repeated hooks and polished tunes create a kind of ritualistic hymnal quality; a call to arms for the clubbing scene. There's then wall-to-wall catchy segments and pulsating beeps across 'Sky', 'Into the N...

After a pretty disastrous first attempt at the solo game back in 2008, a few promotional appearances were necessary in order to keep Scherzinger in the public eye. Since the Pussycat Dolls appear to be over, or at least rivalling the Sugababes in the lineup-changes charts, it was essential that her appearances on various talent shows throughout the Western hemisphere made sure we didn't forget about her. And with the release of 'Poison' it was mission accomplished. All Euro-pop mastery heralded by the current pop producer du jour, RedOne, the track is a gritty synth hook with sirens and alarms ensuring an assault on your ears that's not altogether unpleasant, even with some repetitive lyrics that might make Ke$ha blush - and a video with Nicole in skimpy superhero outfits certainly helped. The title track follows and it's as Eurovision as they come, all predictable lyrics over an unrelenting backdrop that's actually a little too brash to make you want to dance....

It does rather seem that the North East has something in the water in the way of quirky-voiced indie music. With alumni including Arctic Monkeys, Maximo Park and The Cribs, there's something perennially British about them that other areas rather fail to capture. So step forth Little Comets, a new Newcastle band whose debut In Search... was released in February this year, albeit bypassing my radar. Never fear, after a request (omgz popular~) to review them I've given them a few listens and the outlook is bright. They kick off with 'Adultery', a Vampire Weekend-influenced series of barked vocals and angelically pure guitars that almost fulfil a stereotypical quality about them, as if ready to go along with an already densely populated genre. The track is certainly catchy but it seems a shade too relaxed for a breakthrough. Meanwhile 'One Night In October' is a cacophony of tunes by comparison, rolling out the hooks with ease and more than making up for a disappoin...

If comeback singles are anything to go by, Panic! at the Disco are back with a vengeance. With the exclamation mark firmly back in their name, they're ready again to seize your average sociopathic teenager's heartstrings with gusto, and lead single and opening track 'The Ballad of Mona Lisa' made sure it was executed perfectly. Full to the brim with Danny Elfman-inspired string arrangements and a heck of a chorus (full with "whoa!"s and their signature unusual lyrical themes), it's a step back from Pretty. Odd. into A Fever You Can't Sweat Out territory. 'Let's Kill Tonight' is an immediate propeller into My Chemical Romance angst matched with self-indulgent guitars (Muse, anyone?) and more fist-waving than a particularly dark section of XTube I won't be going in again. It's a pretty ballsy effort but it's slightly too much of a Queen/Muse/MCR pastiche for them to pull off convincingly. In 'Hurricane' they revert to a m...

I missed their debut in 2008, but with a little forage into YouTube I've been able to ascertain three things about Does It Offend You, Yeah? One, their name is a bit excruciating. Two, they're a mix of poppers-o'clock synths and Pendulum/Prodigy craziness. Three, I'm not entirely sure I like them. Nonetheless, the sophomore album with a shady release date has arrived, all hipster-triangles and universe-adorned in its aesthetics and just as shiny in its acoustics. Opener 'We Are the Dead' is a vicious series of blasts of slightly the same effect as going on a bouncy castle with an axe murderer, helped along by a sinister(ish) tune. Follower 'John Hurt' is begging for a chest-bursting reference in this review but instead I'll opt for the Elephant Man - an at first ugly clash that after a few listens becomes a bit more clear (an 'It Takes Two' sample carrying things along smoothly). 'Pull Out My Insides' is as mainstream as they come, a ...

You'd be hard-pressed to find a breakthrough as turbulent and rippling as Jennifer Hudson's - it has all of the ingredients for a modern popstar's career, let alone debut. Already with an Academy Award under her belt, Hudson wowed critics and audiences alike with her showstopping performance in Dreamgirls, only to go and cap it off with a #2 album and a string of hits - the biggest across the Atlantic being 'Spotlight'. Yet with the good came the tragic - the murder of such a large proportion of her family soon after the release of the album sent shockwaves around the world. But Hudson's come back fighting, with a monumental weight loss and stunning new figure to boot. I Remember Me kicks off its long list of production talents with Rich Harrison's 'No One Gonna Love You', a midtempo moment of reflection. "I named it 'I Remember Me' because I feel like in 29 years I have lead over four different lives," Hudson revealed on the red ca...

A few days ago I got an email asking me to review this - being the first of any such request I was flattered and have been giving it a couple of listens since. If anyone else has any such requests then feel free to drop them by at bugsy2301@live.com :) So, Supermarionation. An awesome name, no doubt, but what of the set-up? I'll take a bit of a quote from their website, located here : Supermarionation are a punk powerpop three-piece from Edinburgh. We’ve got mad ideas in musical form and the power to knock you right off your feet if you happen to be before our full frontal assault. We are to be found playing around Edinburgh and Glasgow and like a rash all over the internets. We're hopping to move further afield in the real world too. Supermarionation released their début record On the Fly on Six Take No Records on December 6th 2010. The release contains five original tracks (sampled above). The entire EP is located here. Now, with only 5 tracks it's of course not entirely ...

There's something quite ceremonial about this release, being 10 years after the revolutionary 'Is This It'. Yet if the gossip culture amongst some of music's biggest rags were to have a serious weight, they would have us believe that this, their 4th record, has all but killed them. Rumours of feuding, egos, missed deadlines, troublesome mixing and other such problems have spiralled to build an image of fractitious recordings (aided by varying press releases by the band members in a Gallagherian fashion). I personally couldn't give a rat's arse about who's getting on with who, as long as the music's good. 'Machu Picchu' opens the floodgates with a series of new sounds to the Strokes, evidence of experimentation that will surely keep them fresh, if alienate a few fans of the core sound. There's tongue-in-cheeks references to the wait behind the album with "I'm putting your patience to the test", whilst Casablancas' signature u...

I was never particularly a fan of the View upon their breakthrough. If anything, I found 'Same Jeans' irritating, and this discouraged me from exploring them further. However, the general consensus is that their follow-up album was a dismal effort, and therefore the stage is clear to redeem themselves. And they've certainly done that. Opener 'Grace' is so ripe for British pub audiences that it could very easily find itself on a Jeremy Clarkson-endorsed drivetime compilation, being so bold and singalong as it is, and there's no harm in that (however uncool it may be deemed in comparison to Thom Yorke crying over trees, perhaps). 'Underneath The Lights' continues this trend of not-exactly-experimental-but-still-a-decent-tune-so-who-cares? guitar bashing but it's a shade short of being memorable. The same goes for 'Tragic Magic', a sure candidate for Most Generic Indie Rock Song of the Year. So there's a welcome change of scenery in 'Gir...

It seems that every year there comes an American talent star to the UK with a considerably bigger success story than she's enjoyed in her home country: Jordin Sparks' follow-up singles did considerably better over here, and Jennifer Hudson and Adam Lambert have also done rather well for themselves. Alexis Jordan, however, seems to have gone the long route - in 2006 she appeared on America's Got Talent, but failed to get past the semi finals. And so she turned to YouTube, which, whilst certainly popular, has had negligible success stories (and the majority tend to be for the wrong reasons). Nonetheless, she appears to have pulled off an Esmée Denters, rather than a phatgaykid. Debut single 'Happiness' kicks off the album, poised carefully to keep the attention of the fickle and it's not difficult to see why it's enjoyed success - a slow-burning electronic anthem (indeed, cowritten by Deadmau5) with stuttered lyrics and a 'euphoric' moment in the choru...

The way some magazines and establishments are harping on about them, you'd think the Vaccines were the UK's biggest new discovery since the Arctic Monkeys. So it's a bit of a dangerous pedestal for them to perform from; there's inevitably going to be many who disagree with the hype. And the truth is the four Londoners are as far from the Monkeys as they come - initial sounds placing them somewhere between Mumford and Sons, White Lies and Franz Ferdinand, but with a slightly more edgy feel. With an audacious album title, one would initially expect from the Vaccines a plethora of tongue-in-cheek lyrics and bold beats. And with opener 'Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)' they certainly deliver on that promise, being just over a minute of high octane drums and vocal rhythms that have a dizzying effect (matched suitably by their music video, set from a varyingly spiralling camera's perspective). "If You Wanna" is similarly unrelenting in pace, certainly remini...

I really enjoyed 'The Cool'. In 2007, when hip hop was a rarity in my music library, it was therefore something of a small miracle for Superstar and Paris, Tokyo to find their way into my plays. Nonetheless, it's been a long time since then and 2011 is a slightly different environment - Jay-Z, Eminem and Kanye have built themselves up as unsurmountable pillars in the eyes of the mainstream, and it seems most artists have to borrow a pop/electro hook from an en trend guest to secure themselves airplay (Eminem/Rihanna, Dr. Dre/Skylar Grey, Taio Cruz/Kylie...) - but Fiasco set himself apart as a somewhat lighter version of hip hop. This approach of course has now been pinched by the likes of B.o.B., Drake and Taio, so it'll be interesting to see if he can hold his territory. The first two tracks seem to confirm this - 'Lasers' starts pretty weakly. 'Letting Go' features Sarah Green, a pretty unremarkable talent and it's a little clunky. There's an ...

Such is the worldwide presence of Ms. Spears that she, even 13 years after her breakthrough, is able to still hit #1 spot all over the world. She is the very definition of a modern popstar - she's enjoyed the success and also suffered a lot of highly-profiled personal problems. So there comes a time where such new albums are almost like milestones; things you can look back on in photographs like "oh, there's Oops I Did It Again! Aw, she was so innocent back then" and "Hey, look! Here's Blackout! Christ she was a mess!" I'm quite aware that, being a fan of um... music ... I'm probably about to sign my death warrant here due to the sheer capacity and mental instability of some of her hardcore fans. If you're a member of a forum you'll know them - they brandish GIFs freely and use terms like "stay pressed" and "rofl haters" and "THIS IS MY JAM" which have about as much cohesive structure as Japan right now. (Oh,...

Not so much of a review for today as a blind bit of ass-kissing for a relatively new band that should, if there's any justice in the world, make it big. From time to time I have these compulsions - the last notable ones were for The Leisure Society and Music Go Music, two of my favourite albums from the noughties. Their backstory is a little sugary sweet to be suited for a particularly indie 5 piece. Lifted from their last.fm: Hannah Hooper met Christian Zucconi late one evening on the lower east side of Manhattan. They had both been living in New York for years and had never crossed paths before. But from that night forward the two could hardly be pulled apart. Soon after their connection Hooper was invited to an art residency in Greece on the island of Crete and Hooper insists “without any hesitation” she invited Zucconi to join her on this journey. “Seriously, we had only known one another for a few days but are both so inspired and alive when we are together that going to Greec...