Review #32: Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

I really wish I had written 'Dye It Blonde'.
It shows that there still are bands out there who diverge far away from the mainstream and play music that they like playing. Glamrock really is glamorous when the 'Smith Westerns' make an album. It's not your usual glamor, but its perhaps better than diamonds and money. It's natural glamor. You know, the natural, amazing guitar riffs that these genii create. 'Weekend' has one of the best riffs I have ever heard, but it is the end of the album that shows the bands true flair.
There isn't much more to say really. Listen to it. It is wonderous!


Best Tracks: 'End Of The Night', 'Only One', 'Smile'

7/10

Review #31: Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

This is a beautiful piece of music. It is no wonder that bands such as 'Fleet Foxes' or 'Mumford And Sons' have become huge. It is purely because they seep talent from their veins!
'Helplessness Blues' clearly shows how 'Fleet Foxes really aren't one trip ponies and they are here to continue making music that is as beautiful and effortless as it gets.
But. And this is a big but.
They haven't gone anywhere since the first album. It sounds exactly the same as 'Fleet Foxes'. The lyrics, the chord sequences, the riffs... Need I go on? Its not that I have a problem with this, it's that I would have hoped to see some progress in the way that they band approach the music. However, I very much respect the way they are completely about the music, with it being their only focus.

Best Tracks: 'Montezuma', 'Battery Kinzie', 'Grown Ocean'

7/10

Review #30: Times New Viking - Dancer Equired

Well, that was weird...
I am still not entirely sure what I just experienced. It seemed to be a man, and a woman, singing over each other. That is right isn't it? Did they have any songs before they entered the studio. Maybe it's improvised. Yes! That must be it.
Well done 'Times New Viking'. Wonderful improvised album.
I do hope it is improvised or I, and them, will be looking very silly right now.

Best Tracks: Any. Each one is just as weird as the next.

6/10

Review #29: Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once

Another one for the landfill site? I think so!
This has absolutely nothing on their stunning debut. 'The Airborne Toxic Event' is one of my favorite unsung albums, and I still regularly listen to it two years after its release.
'All At Once' on the other hand is not very good at all. His slightly out of tune voice in the first record was beautiful. It is what I felt made the record that much better. However, on their second outing his voice seems to have got more out of tune and it really doesn't work. He still has a distinctive voice, but not for a good reason anymore.
It seems that the best songs on the album are those that are either very similar to the tracks on their first record or the numbers that are very different like 'Welcome To Your Wedding Day'. The majority of the album, however, seems as if they have created a record whilst they have become stuck half way through 'Changing' into their new selves as their song suggests. Or maybe this is what they were going for, and the song 'Half Of Something Else' describes this.
I cannot say I would recommend this to anyone. Go listen to their debut.

Best Tracks: 'All For A Woman', 'Welcome To Your Wedding Day', 'Half Of Something Else'

5/10

Review #28: Dutch Uncles - Cadenza

This album doesn't deserve the hype it has been getting.
It is a good album; 'Candenza' is a wonderful opener and a great single, but the album as a whole just doesn't do it for me. The tracks don't seem connected, with no strong underlying message, which is the idea I got that they were trying to put forward through the album.
So, basically I understood that they were trying to get a message across, but I didn't understand what the message was.

6/10

Review #27: The Wombats - This Modern Glitch

So. I have been waiting, what? 3 years for this? Good job its amazing isn't it!
Matthew Murphy can write a song. He can write many. Each as good as the rest. Which is exactly what album number two shows for the Liverpudlians/Norwegian.
'This Modern Glitch' is made of 10 tracks that are probably some of the catchiest songs you will ever hear. Each track could easily have been a charting single, and the genius of 'Murph's' synth riffs astound me.
'I'm a man of simple taste no whiskey or caviar' and 'Take me as I am, or not at all'. The lyrics easily compare to that of the 'Arctic Monkeys', with every word being magical.
The only problem with the album is that there are only 10 songs!

8/10

Review #26: Metronomy - The English Riviera

I'm still not entirely sure I like this album yet. I find it almost haunting. The pure simplicity of it being simple amazes me.
When the album started I immediately thought that I was going to have to give it a bad review, as i felt it was a very weak start. However, it grew on me as I progressed through the tracks, almost when I didn't want it to and by the time I reached track 4, 'The Look', I was completely captured in the sound. I felt that this was the pinnacle of the album, and the point where the album's meaning became blurred. I'll let you make your own mind up on its meaning, but it's a decent record.

8/10

Review #25: Jamie Woon - Mirrorwriting

Post-dubstep seems to be having the effect dubstep had on lazy people. 'Jamie woon', like 'James Blake', has really taken the new style with both hands, and songs like 'Lady Luck' could perhaps be some of the best the genre will ever see.
'Mirrorwriting' is a wonderful piece of work, which was a huge surprise, as I saw Jamie supporting 'La Roux' last year, and I wasn't impressed. Perhaps the genre doesn't work live, or that he has really improved in the meantime, but this really impressed me.
One of my favorite elements of his work are the lyrics. 'Walked when I shoulda ran. Ran when I shoulda walked.' are brilliantly simple, yet effective, which is the element that the whole album radiates.

7/10