A God-awful Small Affair

The ingredients are all there for a new obsession of mine: a noisepop duo, based in New York City, with a female vocalist and signed to a record label owned by Lily Allen. They're a couple too, which just reassures all of my diehard romantic tendencies. So I treat Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin with a touch of "too good to be true" cynicism. Yet even from the get-go the duo are quick to pinpoint a number of great influences - they cite the Shangri-Las as a favourite, they've supported Sleigh Bells, Follin's vocals are syrupy childlike (in a Jackson 5 way) - and it's difficult not to get swept up in the hype. Especially since lo-fi breezy indie-pop is very much en vogue lately, thanks to the likes of Summer Camp, Those Dancing Days or Oh Land. So in an environment where Shirelles and Mamas & Papas records are embraced as tightly as Sonic Youth or Carpenters', it's a little difficult to stand out. So they introduce some twee sounds that could re...

London's biggest extrovert goes powerpop. My past experiences with the music of Patrick Wolf have often been tumultuous. I've slightly admired and mostly ignored his oldest material because of "old times Shaun" being somewhat averse to any music that's not immediately gratuitous. Many critics have often complained that Wolf is pretentious showmanship at its most obvious, and they might be somewhat pleased by this latest record. Because with the gradual releases of singles 'Time of My Life', 'House' and 'This City', there has come an impression that he's ditched the mystere and embraced a kind of Mika (though less childish) optimism. Indeed on opening 'The City' the music is as conventional as you can get. It's trademark romanticism, as pointed out by Wolf himself in an interview with Digital Spy: It's saying that no matter how homeless, poor or jobless we are, we won't let that affect our love and relationships. With...

A star-studded lineup doesn't always equate to a top quality record In a record featuring Cee Lo Green, Robyn, Eve, The Flaming Lips and the B-52s you'd be forgiven for expecting something overwhelmingly diverse and, in the very least hope for, a great collection. It certainly seems to have worked for the Swedish electro/dance outfit in the past, with collaborations with Iggy Pop, Neneh Cherry and Elephant Man to their repertoire. The saying too many cooks spoil the broth may well be the case here, but I'll take a track-by-track look at the 2010 album about to be rereleased in the US. The only difference between the two releases is the guest appearance on track 3, 'Cardiac Arrest', which was previously attributed to Maipei but has been since rerecorded with electro-queen du jour, Robyn. It all starts off promisingly. I'm slightly unfamiliar with Eve's recent performances but she's vocally on fire in the opener 'Rocket Scientist', with a cold, ro...

A quick disclaimer: I'm not anywhere near as big a nerd about Bon Iver as most fans appear to be. I don't even have the Blood Banks EP. I know, right? Still, I know what I like, and that's enough for me. Since the release of 2008's For Emma, Forever Ago the band have gone from strength to strength - the single 'Skinny Love' was covered by British female Birdy and enjoyed a sustained chart run; the band have worked on tracks for the Twilight movies; and the track 'Woods', along with the band's other services, were employed for last year's phenomenal Kanye West record. Skip forward three years and all such successes can be undermined with the click of a button. On May 23 the successor to the album, eponymously titled Bon Iver , was accidentally released to purchase on iTunes - a mistake that has led to its widespread leak. At just under a month prior to its official release date this could of course seriously damage the potential for chart positio...

This is my first Manchester Orchestra album. It's always a bit of a risk jumping in the middle of someone's discography because you're naturally oblivious to what is (potentially) better material, or in the very least unaware of the band's progress and stylings. Nonetheless the general impression of the band I get is a fondness for strings (I'm sure there's a cheap pun with regard to their name here but I cannot be arsed), mellow rock and sensitivities that place them somewhere in the same bracket as Mumford and Sons or Neil Young. As is to be expected with such a band - Pitchfork have been rather cruel on them in the past. Yet the consensus elsewhere is overwhelmingly positive. Indeed on opening track 'Deer' the band roll around dustily in atmospherics and the vocal harmonies of Andy Hull, but the lyrics are more than your typical folk artist: "Dear everybody that has paid to see my band / it's still confusing, we'll never understand / I ac...

Short but sweet sophomore stuff. Ssss. Sibilance, mmm. I downloaded this record mostly on account of its almost universal praise, plus last.fm had recommended the band to me. It's not hard to see why - they're influenced by David Bowie, T.Rex and Iggy Pop - and they have the audacity to describe their band interests as "pu$$y and weed". I tend to ignore recommendations on account of how often I find them to be based on nonsense (you like M.I.A.? Why not try this black girl who slaps herself all the time?!) but the Chicago band have taken me by surprise. With a music video showing the band playing arcade games and buying Led Zeppelin albums and porn, 'Weekend' is the second most fun-packed track this year to look forward to the weekend after Rebecca Black - with a nice chorus (you'll sing along to the "tooooooooo"s) and a synthy backdrop that splashes reverie in your face. The Marc Bolan influences become apparent in 'Still New' with class...

They're back. It's been six years since "don't believe the hype" became the ironic soundbite of British indie music - and the gradual decline of favourability the Arctic Monkeys have suffered since has come faster than most bands would endure over decades. The general consensus about 'Humbug' was that, whilst good, the hooks had gone. This of course will divide opinion in itself, because tracks such as 'Cornerstone', 'Crying Lightning' and 'Fire and the Thud' expanded the band's horizons. They were probably never intended to become instant hits in the same vein as '...Dancefloor' or 'When the Sun Goes Down', and if anything, saved the band from monotony. Their fourth album, 'Suck it and See' is almost a bridge between the two. Opening track 'She's Thunderstorms' might very well be a nod to 'Crying Lightning' in name, and does carry much of the romanticism-with-odd-wordplay themati...

Crap the music. Hopefully the second of a long chain of self-titled releases, 'Young the Giant' was strictly released in the latter half of 2010. "Well why are you reviewing it now, you nonce?" you may ask (and hurt my feelings), but "because I can" would be my response. I might pad that out with "I only discovered them recently" and then even maybe "because of Jools Holland". It's also got the prestige of a scathing Pitchfork review - which had initially launched me into "well they weren't that bad, were they?" musings of disbelief. Well, in short, they kind of are. Opening track 'Apartment' is a take on the soft-rock sensibilities that have become pretty much convention for 80% of the like that NME might review, remarkably the second single from the record. Lyrics vary from nonsense ("you carved a boat to sail my shadow, now I walk alone") to generic ("things are falling apart) - the absurdities...

Ambitious debut from the 'Princes of Leon'. It's only a matter of time before a band from rural America is dubbed, or at the very least compared to, the Kings of Leon - but there's solid ground behind the comparisons between recent 'Use Somebody' arena-packers and this new Ohio (now Tennessee) band. Yet for a band so hyped the online presence is minimal: indeed, according to an article in The Guardian last year, "[they] have been so keen to keep their debut material under wraps that rather than sending it out to journalists to review, they played it down the phone to them". Not exactly the most conventional approach for a modern phenomenon but maybe that adds to the illusion or charm. Their eponymous debut immediately introduces us listeners to a world of tense, atmospheric riffs and a raw, slightly twanged, vocal that will continue to be a recurring theme throughout - 'Cloak and Dagger' making the best of some U2-like stadium-filling blasts an...

Okay, I'll hold my paws up: I'm a fan. Don't you just hate it when an album comes along and you have so very little to say about the artist? Hehe. It's funny because she's everywhere. Some will say that she peaked with The Fame Monster , 2009's EP that saw 8 additional tracks to her standard hit-and-miss debut The Fame - and with tracks such as Alejandro, Telephone, Speechless and Bad Romance there's certainly a lot of weight to that theory. Those fears only snowballed upon the release of 'Born This Way', 2011's be-proud anthem that polarised the world thanks to a certain Madonna similarity and change of scenery to a much dancier, political outlet. But she's slowly clawed her way back into respectability - Judas and The Edge of Glory proving she can still dish out great pop songs with edge, without the necessity for shock tactics (though Judas inevitably pissed off a few of those who live to be pissed off). Alas, enough of the back sto...

Those looking for something to fill the void left by VV Brown shall leave this album delighted. "It’s one of the hardest things to write a concise, three-minute pop song that people from A to Z are going to understand and enjoy. And that’s what I’ve tried to do on the album – write pop tunes." - RobotPigeon, January 2011 It's been a long time since the 2009 release of her Querelle EP and the hype behind her has deteriorated somewhat, but all of the ingredients are still there for a great pop album. Produced by Liam Howe (who's lended his touch to Adele and Marina and the Diamonds), and fresh off the back of supporting Marina, Duran Duran and Kele Okereke, there's a pretty solid alternative fanbase for Anita Blay, the 25 year old face of CockNBullKid. “I’ve always thought pop should never just be saccharine” she says, “It should be black and tortured too. There’s no point otherwise.” Indeed, on the opening title track, she laments "is this adulthood? Tell me...

MORe of the same from indie's most boring disco. In late 2008 Friendly Fires' self-titled record dropped and made a ripple of carefree indie-pop. Singles such as 'Paris', 'Skeleton Boy' and 'Jump in the Pool', with the help of Radio 1 and their "we can be cool too!!" team, pushed them into the outskirts of mainstream success. They filled the void that Klaxons had opened the year before - but with nothing as revolutionary. That much is devastatingly clear on their follow-up, Pala. It starts pretty much where they left off, and as they mean to go on. Single 'Live Those Days Tonight' is a mixture of hazy dream sequence synths, echoed vocals and jaunty drumbeats that all build towards their signature, almost latin, indie disco sound. To its credit it's a faultless interpretation of the synth-and-optimism anthems that currently dominate the pop world. However by 'Blue Cassette' we're reminded of that world's many, many pi...

John Stanier steals the show in that rarest of things: a superior second album. In 2007 the debut record, Mirrors, from the New York City boys Battles, took to critics' hearts - earning pretty much universal praise and positions (86/100 on Metacritic; #105 on Pitchfork's top albums of the decade). This time around they're without singer/keyboarder/guitarist Tyondai Braxton (due to those pesky solo work commitments), adding pressure to an already sizeable task: improve upon the first. Not that it needs improvement. You know what I mean. And from the very beginning there's a massive assault on the ears: 'Africastle' is a monster of heavy drums from John Stanier but the focal point of the track is really the strings-effects that chime and clash uneasily throughout, leaving me a touch bewildered, a touch in awe at what's about to happen. Around the fourth minute it suddenly caves in on itself for what can only be described as the soundtrack for an 80s film car c...

Watch out, Beady Eye. Miles Kane is on a quest for 2011's retro crown. Following a hugely successful stint in The Last Shadow Puppets, in a summer where retropop was all the rage thanks to the likes of Mark Ronson, Duffy and Amy Winehouse, there is a slight risk of the former Rascals frontman becoming Britain's next typecast 60s revivalist - but thanks to this year's "Different Gear, Still Speeding", that thorned crown might just be out of reach. With help from the likes of Noel Gallagher, Gruff Rhys and former band-mate Alex Turner, 'Colour of the Trap' is a little bit more than pastiche. Opener 'Come Closer' starts as Kane means to continue: with a stomping one-two drumbeat and cries of "ahh"s and "whoa"s battling for attention - the production pretty impressive (although this is to be expected from Dan Carey, behind work of CSS, Hot Chip and The Kills) and the tune catchy enough to rattle a few cages. 'Rearrange' thro...

To be quite honest, I was utterly unfamiliar with Wild Beasts' discography prior to this. It had somehow bypassed my attention that 2009's (their second album) Two Dancers was nominated for the Mercury award - First track 'Lion's Share' is a brooding mixture of Glass-inspired pianos and haunting vocals, Hayden Thorpe's falsetto at times evoking Antony Hegarty and at all times harmonising perfectly with Chris Talbot's baritone. On 'Bed of Nails' there's a nice percusssion that builds in rhythm quite wonderfully; the lyrics a little bit blatant for what it's about ("Oh Ophelia, I feel you full") but in referencing Frankenstein and "lanky-limbed heap"s it remains unusual rather than creepy. With a slow drumbeat 'Deeper' continues with the lyrics about you-know-what ("the smile across my face/ the fires inside you rage"), this time Tom Fleming's voice taking charge. A distant guitar on 'Loop the Loop...

Let's face it: the last thing the internet needs right now is another Goblin review. So widespread has the online buzz about Tyler the Creator been that he's even seen fit to reference it on this record. And that's where my first gripe stands: he doesn't just reference it, he revels in it. When hype is so rapidly built around someone it usually has a pretty unnoticed effect: teams of PR and agents will drill into the popstar or band how to behave and what to say so as to avoid controversy. Here, it doesn't seem that's in place. Arguably controversy accounts for 99% of an artist's longevity nowadays. The likes of Eminem, Lady GaGa and Marilyn Manson wouldn't be anywhere if they hadn't indulged in homophobic, sacrilegious or satanic outbursts. And yet, with Tyler there doesn't seem at first to be anything at risk: indeed he references this on opener 'Goblin': "I'm not a fucking rapist or a serial killer; I lied. I try too hard, huh...

The availability of 'emo' music has become somewhat less mainstream of late. The majority of the mid-noughties' biggest purveyors of eyeliner and angsty pop-rock have long since ditched their journals in favour of splitting up (Fall Out Boy), comic-book pop-punk (My Chemical Romance) and band member musical chairs (Panic! at the Disco). Whilst Kerrang! and other such specialist outlets will continue to give them center stage, the days of music channels being bothered by glam-rock revivalists are long gone, and the scenesters have taken over. But enough pondering over my mid-teens. Moving Mountains are a New York-based foursome with a collection of TV soundtrack appearances and an even longer list of tour company; most recently supporting the North American tour of a little band by the name of Biffy Clyro. Their second album, Waves sees the band aiming to fulfill their mission statement: an evolving aesthetic undercurrent and a belief that a band can create an experiential v...