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| British Sea Power - Machineries of Joy |
Track one's have been the all important factor on British Sea Power albums. "All In It" was used to shoegaze simplicity on Do
You Like Rock Music? "Who's In Control" evoked the raw hipsterisms of
protest summed up by: "Sometimes I wish protesting was sexy on a Saturday
night," an ode to making protesting seem cool, though in reality that's
far from the truth. It was almost an ironic opening track that instead of
combating the issues, highlighted thug violence which mirrors the Green Street
ethic: "Would you ever go down to fight, fight, point and stand, point and
stand and fight?" Valhalla Dancehall was a barrel of joy for fans of
British Sea Power, and this year's Machineries of Joy is no different with the
self-titled opening track.
The sound of guitar shrieks, ambience and a cymbal build-up
is significant in British Sea Power's musical creations. "Machineries of Joy" opens up in a Neu! fashion, with its krautrock melody. It quickly
turns into one of the best written British Sea Power songs to date: "We’re
primitive abolition, like a hobbyist of deranged proportion. Or the wait is
yours and we’ve failed again, the fleshy existence you keep to yourself,
insecure." We are indeed, magnificent machineries of joy, as Yan sings it
out loud.
Taken from their BSP EP1-6 demo's from last year, British
Sea Power went about recording in Brighton in November. These sessions created
Machineries of Joy, one of their best albums to date. The sixth track
"Monsters of Sunderland" is especially monumental with its trumpets.
Likewise the brass heavy "Radio Goddard". It moves British Sea Power
away from their soaring guitars, creating beauty with brass and an acoustic
guitar as opposed to a distortion heavy electric. This toning down is seen on
the final track "When A Warm Wind Blows Through The Glass" and
"What You Need The Most". There's nothing wrong with these acoustic
tracks per se, it's the anti-heavy or rock that takes British Sea Power out of
their current 'British indie rock' status.
British Sea Power still have their bulging opening track to
fall back on, but ultimately Machineries of Joy takes listeners on a voyage
that probably won't see British Sea Power return to their former arena rock
greatness. Tracks like "Waving Flags" and "Lights out For Darker
Skies" only come around once. I like the brass instrumental segments and
some of their new toned down material, what's not to like about Yan's literal
lyrics over brass. It just doesn’t live up to the audience’s expectation.
7.0
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| Snoop Lion - Reincarnated |
Being an avid fan of reggae music, I was pleasantly excited
to find out Snoop Dogg was going to reinvent himself as a Rastafarian and
release reggae album. Perhaps I was slightly deluded as Snoop Lion's
Reincarnated is potentially the worst reggae album in the history of the genre.
I'm not going to smoothen the blow, because I listen to reggae for
pleasure, not for pain. Reincarnated is possibly the worst experience of music
freedom I’ve ever witnessed.
Snoop Dogg's turn isn't exactly a turn for the ages. He says
he's dropped the hip-hop for reggae, when in fact Reincarnated is just a
hip-hop album with louder bass and a Rastafarian vocal approach. Snoop is
covering the worst of Jamaica’s music past times, dancehall. Here's me thinking
Snoop was going down a Nas & Damien Marley Distant Relatives root, boy was
I wrong, or should I say... Mooonn was I wrong.
Nas actually had a Marley when he broke in to the reggae fusion
genre; Snoop was only influenced by a Marley. There's a difference, and Snoop
was handed a death sin when duo Diplo and Switch produced Reincarnated, under
their Major Lazer moniker. Guest artists include Drake, Rita Ora, Akon and
Miley Cyrus. Wait, what? Yes... Miley Cyrus sings on "Ashtrays and Heartbreaks". Listing these artists makes me shudder, especially as the
combined group, including those beat murderers Major Lazer are killing a genre
and its vibe. We've gone from Augustus Pablo's "Keep On Dubbing" to
Snoop's "Fruit Juice". An astronomical downgrade. And if Snoop's
false gentrification isn't enough to turn you away, perhaps Akon's "Tired
of Running" is. I've dreamt of the day Akon stopped recording music, just
so that god damn awful "CONVICT" sound fucks off.
Reincarnated isn't exactly fun or relaxing. I would
definitely refrain from playing this album on a sunny day, that's left for
reggae artists. It is however, interesting. Snoop manages to combine his love
for the Rastafarian movement with the music of 'his' people, so to speak. He
does it in shoddy, half arsed pop way, but he does it. Snoop met Bunny Wailer
while in Jamaica, and I’m sure Wailer probably wouldn’t approve of the reggae
turned electronic style of records these days. There's a point to reggae, not
as a movement of genre, but as a personal connection between the listener and
the artist. Snoop doesn't take that in to consideration, Miley Cyrus doesn't,
Rita Ora doesn’t, Drake doesn’t and neither do the Majors of Lazers...
2.6
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| Frank Turner - Tape Deck Heart |
‘This is Tape Deck Heart, the brand spanking new album by
Frank Turner, the most important album of the year,' said somebody paid to say
it, when in fact it's as far from the truth as you'd imagine. Understanding
Turner seems to be an increasingly difficult task. left-wing / right-wing
followers cohesively attempt to take Turner as their own, but Turner has no political
obligation other than the Chomsky libertarianism. The singer-songwriter who
turned folk after a hardcore punk career has released four albums prior to Tape
Deck Heart, and after listening to his back catalogue it's easy to see why
people struggle to grasp Turner.
He so eagerly denounces being a protest singer, though his
fore founder of folk punk Billy Bragg disagrees entirely. It's heard on tracks
like "I Still Believe" and "Reasons Not to Be an Idiot"
that Turner is in fact a protester against social norms and 21st century
evolution. One listen to "If Ever I Stray" deciphers his life philosophy;
he's a good guy singing personal songs. Turner attended Eton College alongside
political leaders and royal family members. Born with a silver spoon, Turner
can never sing Richard Ashcroft's "This Is Music" with honesty. He
can uphold his opinions, his music, but he can't change his past nor should he.
Turner doesn’t give a rat’s ass about his family’s fortunes, or his pension
fund that won’t be requested to be paid back. He sings from, as the album
suggests, the heart. Tape Deck Heart being his reflection of a broken down
relationship. it's now clear Turner has gone through his personal sweep of
thoughts to full-on female-obsessive-Bragg. "Recovery" being the
highlight and the first track.
"Four Simple Words" isn’t as interesting as the
build-up suggests and "Losing Days" takes an even sharper turn away
from his folk punk. On paper, Tape Deck Heart should be Turner's most
imaginative album, he's an intelligent guy after all and using a break-up for
musical output should favour the big personality. For some reason Turner
struggles for lyricism on this album, it sounds like an aggressive Mumford
& Sons album with that sense of post-hardcore. The structures are rather
simple and Turner never sings with clarity like he used to with Love Ire &
Song. People are pushing Turner to a left-wing ideology, however Turner doesn't
want that, or to be pushed to his general consensus of conservatism. This album
serves as a good 'fuck you' to commercial gain, the happy ever after outlook in
film and a let loose, broken heart listen. The track "Tell Tale Signs" is a highlight, where Turner sings: "You will always be a part
of my patched-up patchwork taped-up tape-deck heart." Turner's strange
placement of tracks has always bugged me. For instance I would put
"Recovery" somewhere in the middle, "Tell Tale Signs" at
the end and "Four Simple Words" as the opener. It happens on every
Turner album, like with "I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous", which
is the first track when it should be the last track. These little things get to
me, and the audience can feel the difference of a full-album experience to a
collection of songs.
5.5
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| Wavves - Afraid of Heights |
Wavves' sound varies from post-punk to surf rock with that
all important garage rock. King of the Beach streamlined Nathan Williams'
musical output from that of a lo-fi artist scratching the surface to a full
blown male opposite to Best Coast with more skill. Wavves' fourth album Afraid
of Heights opens with a bang, "Sail to the Sun". After the light
percussion intro, reminiscent of a primary school music lesson, Williams then
continues to align Wavves' direction in a post-punk fashion. Instead of the
glossy psychedelia that mirrored third album King of the Beach, Williams and co
go full on Deerhunter.
"Demon To Lean On" is the standout track on Afraid
of Heights; it's also the pre-release single. Simplistic guitar chords and a
dreamy rhythm guitar that goes a long way with Williams' swooping vocal. Afraid
of Heights follows this pattern. "Mystic" being a hazy track with
distorted vocals, "Dog" having the child-like effect Wavves have ever
so often and self-titled track "Afraid of Heights" being a splendid
track of grunge and typical American indie rock.
It's not all exciting and invigorating on Wavves' fourth
album, at times it feels bloated. "Cop" adds that nostalgic feel, but
falls short on the instrumental. "Paranoid" is similar in style and
that distorted guitar structure, like heard in early Wavves albums, becomes
increasingly repetitive. But Afraid of Heights does have the extremely cute
"Gimme A Knife". It also bears one of Wavves best instrumental
structures with "I Can't Dream", the longest track on the album that
finds itself at the back.
There's always a sense of imagination when listening to
Wavves, it's the sheer nostalgia Williams possesses. Afraid of Heights has its
strong and weak points, like every album, this one in particular falls down
with the distorted vocals and aimless instrumentals that take the listener
nowhere on the back side of the album. I like hearing the clarity in Williams'
voice, such as the standout "Demon To Lean On", arguably their best
track to date and most commercial, easily topping "Post-Acid".
7.0
