Album Reviews
Album Review: Sarah Cracknell – Red Kite
In 1993 I had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Cracknell at a signing at an HMV store. It was Sheffield sound city and the Saint Etienne were doing the signing ahead of their set. I took along my copies of ‘Foxbase Alpha’ and ‘So Tough’. I had never really met any singers or bands before …
Album Review: Aerosol – Leave
Rasmus Rasmussen, keyboardist for the Danish music titans Causa Sui, likes to put out lush, synth-driven compositions when he’s not melting minds with his psych-rock brethren. Those songs are released under the name Aerosol. These songs are understated, quietly mesmerizing, and as engulfing as a tidal wave of analog circuitry and simple electronic beats. Each …
Not Forgotten: Paul Simon – Paul Simon
Simon and Garfunkel had enjoyed astoundingly success and were at the peak of the commercial powers when Paul Simon decided that had had tired of sharing the limelight and followed the signposts down the path towards his solo career. While it had been Art Garfunkel’s vocals which had received high praise, Simon had matured into …
Not Forgotten – Mercury Rev – Deserter’s Songs
Like their sister-band The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev took the scenic route to success. After a messy debut album and an equally messy follow-up they ditched their front man and took a gentler and much more interesting career path, with the jazzy, dreamy and startling See You on the Other Side being a charmingly rough …
Not Forgotten: Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters
It’s been well over a decade since Scissor Sisters rose to prominence as the perfect antidote to the type of dour faced guitar bands that were taking their music far too seriously at the time. While they enjoyed a string of sizeable hit singles, it was the group’s self titled debut album in particular that …
Album Review: Evening Fires – ‘Where I’ve Been Is Places and What I’ve Seen Is Things’
‘Where I’ve Been Is Places and What I’ve Seen Is Things’ is, “the newest album in Evening Fires ongoing story. Once again recorded in the their ‘secret Appalachian den,’ “WIBIPAWISIT” was mastered by Kramer and is Evening Fires at their finest. Described as peddlers of that old-time rural acid rock and purveyors of Appalachian space rock, Evening …
Not Forgotten: Tom Petty – Wildflowers
For his second ‘solo’ album Tom Petty did the smart thing and recruited Rick Rubin as the producer. Rubin’s organic and raw production methods were in sharp contrast to the synthetic and processed sounds that Petty’s albums (both solo, and with his celebrated backing band, The Heartbreakers) had suffered from since the lack-luster Southern Accents. …
Album Review: Gengahr – A Dream Outside
A lot of the time these days we’re constantly reminded that yes; guitar music is dead, or no; guitar music isn’t dead. Then we have punky bands like The Vaccines, Palma Violets and Catfish and the Bottlemen that resurrect rock music like Frankenstein’s monster. But I’ve been of the mind that instead of insisting that …
Say Psych: Album Review – Pan by White Manna
A number of reviews of this latest album by Californian five piece White Manna have inevitably rested on their space rock credentials in relation to prime movers of the genre, Hawkwind. While this is understandable it is, in my view, also a little unfortunate because I rate this album as being significantly better than anything …
Album Review: Paul Weller – ‘Saturns Pattern
Songwriter, national treasure, and eternal mod Paul Weller, now 56, could have carved out a nice little niche career playing various mod incarnations forevermore after his Jam and Style Council years, but luckily for us was too restless and easily bored to do so. Like his previous two albums of surprises, Saturns Pattern is full …