Why The Wombats are a Fine Blue Cheese to Jeff Buckley’s Baby Bell

The Wombats 9/10 & 2/10

I would like you to consider cheese...

Are you thinking of cheese?

Good. Then we may continue.

If you are picturing a nice expensive mature blue cheese then good on you. If you’re not then why not! I asked you to consider cheese and you have done what exactly? Thought of Tesco Cheddar? A cheese string? A fucking baby bell? To be honest if this is you then you probably have self-esteem issues and you should spend the time that you would have spent reading this review finding out how to get that sorted.

Anyway the Wombats new album ‘This Modern Glitch’ is a little like that cheese. Everyone knows that a good cheese matures with age, (Bad cheese just goes off and an undisturbed baby bell will outlive us all making us look like a right bunch of tasteless twats when the alien archaeologists start poking around our long dead planet) once purchased and sitting in your fridge the cheese starts a further micro maturing process. Stage One: Stinky Blue Cheese, Stage Two: A Manly Cheese and Stage Three 3: Stinking mush. The time lapse between stage two and three can be as little as a couple of hours and it is this great cheese divide that the Wombats album straddles.

I wanted to write this review now so that I would still have nice things to say about the poptastic choruses, witty lyrics, narrative approach to song writing and ever present vocal harmonies aware as I was that after more than a few hours of play (about 6 listens) the album trans mutates into a big pile of over played chart stink.

So enjoy it while you can the antithesis being listen number three when you are weirdly convinced that the album is one of the best pop albums of the decade whilst being simultaneously aware that the next listen will smash this illusion.

The Vaccines and Strokes

This week I have been listening to two new albums, one from either side of the pond as the Atlantic has come to be known. I am not a fan of this metaphor as when taken to its logical end we find that it is the Americans with the grand house (grand enough at any rate to call the Atlantic a pond) and us humble Brits living in some kindly allowed granny house at the bottom of the garden just beyond the aforementioned water feature.

The Vaccines: What did you Expect From The Vaccines: 6/10

Let us begin at home with the Vaccines. I have read extensively about an anti vaccination movement that is sweeping America due to a poor understanding of Science and celebrities worrying their pretty little heads about it and magazines being all too keen to print what ever nonsense these pretty little heads have to say about absolutely anything. We (the British) are somewhat to blame for this state of affairs as we let the farther of the movement a Dr (now struck off)Andrew Wakefield be born, live, work and publish on our shores (You know the MMR, fuck the science fruit loop). Well now, as way of apology the UK has produced not just 'a' vaccine but 'The Vaccines' who like their names sake take just a little bit of something (The Clash, The Ramones, California Pop Punk and New York Shoe Gazers) and inject it into something to produce bla de blar...(I have walked too far down this metaphorical garden path only to discover it leads no where.)

The Vaccines have been much lauded by the media and appeared highly placed on the BBC's sound of 2011 list. This however is no guarantee of success or quality I'm sure the Twang once appeared on this list. Were the Vaccines a Californian band then this album would be been a pop punk flash in the pan. Who knows maybe a few singles may have made it to our shores, as it is the Vaccines are British and therefore instead of a polished pop poop they have given the world an album that is slightly rough round the edges and in places sounds like it was recorded in a tin can garden shed circa 1979. With off mic comments that are still audible in the mix and amps over run with reverb that give the album a live urgency as opposed to the sterile sound of our Cowell/Fuller overlords.

On an aside note British bands have the best lyrics, I'm not offering it for debate just stating it as a matter of fact. There is nothing lyrically brilliant in the Vaccines album but there is some kind of unique sensibility, black humour and desperation that few mainstream acts outside of Britain commit to record. There isn't much to dislike about this album. It is nothing ground breaking and wares its influences on its sleeve but pop music performed by real musicians pisses all over that produced by pre pubescent boys and music moguls. Not that I would ever accuse the Vaccines of pissing on pre pubescent boys, but saying that I don't know them and London folk are a little odd.

The Stokes: Angles: 8/10

The Strokes are back with their fourth album. I bet no one predicted that happening after the solo successes Albert Hammond Jr and Julian Casablanca but happen it has and they have pulled out all the stops not to sound like The Strokes and in doing so have only managed to sound even more like The Strokes.

The opening track has a Reggie sound and a structure more complex than you average Strokes track but by track two, which is the lead single 'Under the Cover of Darkness we find our selves on familiar territory with classic sounding and signature garage production, clashing guitars that duel across the verses and call to mind the excellent Reptilla. Except something is different, very different. I'm not staining to here the lyrics, they are high in the mix and have more than a few notes that are sung with real confidence all of which done without the mask of the broken mic distortion that was hidden behind most notably on their first record. Your So Right is where The Strokes mould is truly broken with a song that has a sinister electronic base and layered vocals that give a new dynamic to the band that I would have never suspected that they had it in them.

I was sure that the Strokes were a band running out of steam but for me this album marks a definite transition from indie fashion darlings with little substance beyond a few pop tunes into a serious 'albums band' but will anyone still care by the time their next album is out? I hope so. Even with all these changes The Strokes remain a band that sound like no other band than The Strokes.

Three Super Quick Music Reviews

Cold War Kids, Mine Is Yours 7/10

Cold War Kids have another album out, yeah I didn’t realise either. For fans of numbers this is actually their third album but you may not have noticed as there has been little fan fayre about the band since their opening effort ‘Robbers and Cowards’ topped many muso lists. Their second album was somewhat more of the same with the same hissing retro sounding recordings and a ‘passion over tunefulness’ approach. Expecting more of the same I was instantly hit by the plush almost pop production on this album. The yelps of the vocalist and the hammering of percussion are still there but it no longer sounds like it has been recorded on a reluctant tape deck in a soviet bunker. Many won’t like the new polished sound but these would be the same people who go off punk bands as they become proficient on their instruments. Cold War Kids are evolving and maybe in 5 more albums could be as radio friendly as The Script (which means that this could be their peak.)

Adele, 21, 7/10

Pop music used to be short for popular music. Now it is usually short for turgid half thought out throw away music peddled by the fame hungry and PR people rather than artistic intent or, god forbid, talent. Good ‘potential pop’ is far too quickly relegated to specialist playlists where commercial radio wont dream of touching it and mainstream audiences won’t hear it meaning it will never be popular and therefore never be described as pop music. That is why I was so happy to see the return of Adele. An unlikely looking pop star (always a good barometer for talent) Adele has a beautiful voice that screams soul. Lush arrangements, velvet production and spotless vocals give this album the same timeless sound as her first. The album is uncompromising in its approach which is clearly artist driven and makes no concession to what has been riding high in the charts in the years since her debut (except for some suspicious Florence’esq harps in ‘He Won’t Go’) The cream will always rise to the surface but much of it becomes tainted by the turds that also have a nasty habit of floating, Adele has dodged this brown bullet and I look forward to 23, 26, 35, and 40.

Chase and Status, No More Idols, 3/10

Do you have an 1856 Mecklenburg-Schwerin Stamp? If you do get it out now you’re going to use it as a visual aide. Imagine how much information you could fit on the back of it. If the subject upon which you were writing was ‘All I know about dance music’ and it were I who was doing the writing then there would be comfortable room for illustrations (That was a joke for the philatelists boom ya!) I only know of Chase and Status for some pretty nifty leftfield remix work on some indie tracks. I would have preferred to have not listened to the album and only have this memory of them. Unfortunately some things can’t be undone…

White Lies Ritual 4/10

A very short review for this album.

If you don't have all the Cds by Editors then spend your money on them instead and then the back catalogue of Interpol and then the departure and then buy some flowers for someone special. All would be better ways of spending your hard earned. Production aside there is nothing here that is out of the ordinary or stretching above the precipice of the trench of mediocrity that is mainstream indie at the moment.

Bands With Girls Names Special: Emma's Imagination and Suzi Won

Ok music reviews and something a little bit different. I am going to review another product of reality TV but to balance this out I am going to review a local unsigned band as well. Let us start with the (slightly) more famous of the two.

Emma’s Imagination: Stand Still 6/10

Scottish Singer Song Writer Emma Gillespie shot to prominence after winning Sky One’s Must Be The Music. Actually that isn’t exactly correct let me rephrase. Emma Gillespie would have shot to prominence after winning Sky One’s Must Be The Music if in fact anyone was actually watching it. Now I hadn’t ever seen Must Be The Music and came across Emma’s Imagination quite by accident on YouTube where I saw what I presume was her audition piece for the show. What I will say for Must Be The Music is that it sounds a damn site more interesting than the karaoke hen night from hell that has become the X-Factor. On the show (wait for it, this will blow your mind.) artists play instruments and perform original material, I would like to remind folks that the only time original material has been performed on the X-Factor was when Chico performed his physics bothering anthem Chico Time.

Stand Still consists of ten well-crafted acoustic led songs. At 27 Emma is an artist who has both found her sound and who’s songs have lost little through their studio arrangements which though loaded with instruments have maintained something of a DIY sound particularly noticeable in the steel guitar featured on the track soul of oceans. There is nothing revolutionary on this album and her being both Scottish and talented will lead to fair comparisons to KT Tunstal and even Texas.

The album is top heavy in quality and by the midway point interest does begin to wain however this CD would sit comfortably in a dinner party play list holding its own against Norah Jones, KT Tunstal and Corrin Bailly Rae.

Suzi:Won www.myspace.com/suziwon

I was in a band once. We weren’t what critics would describe as good but we had a fucking fantastic time doing it and would enthuse about it in the boorish way that people in bands do. Knowing that this was once me I am always happy to hear about amateur bands and love the enthusiasm that their members show when telling anyone who will listen about their influences and when their next gig is. I came across a member of Suzi:Won when he was working in a Chemist. I work for a newspaper and upon hearing this contact details and a myspace account were pushed into my palm all of the time while I protested that I probably couldn’t help. As it turned out I couldn’t help but I thought I might contribute to their presence in what little way I can by talking a little about them here.

I haven’t been on Myspace for a long time and I know you probably won’t have either. Well let me tell you it is still fucking ugly, with colour schemes that even a grandmother wouldn’t describe as bold and page designs that frankly boggle the mind in terms of the prominence of various items. However I really should move onto the music.

Suzi:Won are based in Newcastle England and produce what they describe as Electro Rock but what others may describe as Electro Emo. No don’t stop reading come back here! Playing in Phantom of the Opera style masks (what isn’t to love) singing fantastically camp lyrics (“Your hitting me with your hands/I’m hitting back with my heart”) and choruses that wouldn’t sound out of place in a piece of 90’s hard house this band have a sense of fun so often lacking in rock music of any sub-genre.

In a Day is a song that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hollywood version of an American teen party. Pop synths, intersect with reverb laden guitar to produce a sound that at first sounds epic before inducing chair dancing with the introduction of the drums. High production values help to mask slightly nasal vocals but by the time you have heard the chorus this doesn’t matter as you are hooked by the good time pop sensibility of the thing.

Now Iz Us is not a good name for a song and falls only slightly below Sk8r Boi in my imaginary worst song titles ever list. However unlike Sk8r Boi the song its self has merit with some lovely sustained guitars, euro synths and 80’s hard rock bass drum sounds. Whilst the song isn’t as instantly arresting as ‘In a Day’ it maintains its high production values and musicianship. Vocals remain high in the mix and the song serves to remind me of Men Women and Children, The Bravery and maybe even some less-dance centric of The Rapture’s early material.

Taking it Back maintains a heavier rock sound throughout with stretched lyrics and the same brand of silky production that first brought Linkin Park and Lost Prophets screaming into the mainstream my only hope is that they haven’t come to this party a little too late.
Broken Rock Stars starts with some wonderful glitch synth sounds that form the dirty underbelly of the track which ultimately lacks a hook. A nice synth breakdown and half time drums in the middle of the song showcases the big sound that this band can craft but ultimately they seem torn between the easy pop sounds of In a Day and this more musically mature (though not necessarily as interesting) style.

All in all an album may be a bit much for me at this stage but their big sound and sing a long choruses should see them gain a good reputation as a live band and from there I am sure a great album will follow.

Suzi : Won will be playing at the Riverside on February the 5th for more details check their Myspace.

White Lies new effort will be the next album up in front of the firing squad.

Oh no its a top ten list...

Sorry that it has been so quiet on the blog front. I got a new job and the transition from dole bum to working lad has proved somewhat problematic for two reasons. One, the white devil dust that falls nightly and two, working is tiring, especially when you haven’t done any for months.

Anyway I’m back now so stop the moaning. There are however going to have to be some changes between now and the New Year. Both film and music reviews will be more sporadic in frequency due to the infantilising and broad nature of movie and music releases over the period of enforced festivity.

I know it may be a little too early for a best albums of 2010 list BUT you would be wrong. After having scanned the release schedule I can’t see anything of any merit on the horizon before the visit of the fat fella. So here it is; my top albums and songs of 2010 in, yes you guessed it, Haiku. I’m pretty sure this list won’t match any others out there as it is based purely on those albums that I purchased so I’m sure there are some really excellent albums missing. Feel free to let me know.

Cue the music: den ur du dur du du du…

Albums

Number 5: Yeasayer: Odd Blood


Their Odd Looking Folks
With an eclectic sounding
Ambitious Debut

Number 4: Bombay Bicycle Club: Flaws


Two albums, one year.
Flaws is the acoustic one
Masterful Construct

Number 3: Cee Lo Green: Lady Killers


Motown’s Back around
Cool as you like, though fuck you
Is ruined by curse.

Number Two: The Gaslight Anthem: American Slang


Working Class Rock Music?
Is What they say, I hear punk.
A mature album.

Number 1: Vampire Weekend: Contra


My most played tracks they
Come from this CD who knew
Itunes, it told me.



Songs

Number 1: Katy Perry: California Girls


California Girls,
We’re unforgettable and
I bet your singing.

Number 2: Eminiem ft Rihana: Love the Way you Lie


If feels almost real
Hip Hop so rarely gets close
Production is Fab

Number 3: Foals: Spanish Sahara


“Lads, Do we need a
Chorus,” “I don’t think we do.”
“And that’s the single?”

Number 4: Dan le Sac + Scrubious Pip Five Minutes


Story Telling rap
Understated and touching
Intelligent? Yes!

Number 5: The Drums Lets Go Surfing


Whistle it away
In a car in the summer
You will feel happy.

Back With Their Original Line Up and They Call This Progress?

Take That - Progress - 8/10

I am a 24 year old male. I don’t think that makes me a part of Take That’s immediate demographic. I have somehow managed to reach this stage of my life without really considering them in any depth, that was until their new album ‘Progress’ became the fastest selling album ever. Yes ever. Think of a truly great album, got it? This one has sold quicker. Go on try again; yep it beat that one too.

I arrive at this review with a limited knowledge of Take That. Here is what I know. Take That were formed in the early nineties by record exec types looking to form a boy band around a northern pub singer, bag of talent Gary Barlow. Progress was slow but the tried and tested ‘get the gays and the girls will follow’ approach to launching a boy band was taken (pre x-factor you must understand). Gradually they went from club act to ‘pop sensation’ with all the hysteria and tabloid drama that accompanies it. Many great pop songs later Robbie Williams left something happened involving a court case and then the remaining four called it a day. Gary Barlow continued to be talented and wrote lots of big selling songs for loads of UK artists Robbie Williams went stellar and Mark Owen try as he might didn’t really achieve much . An urban legend about Gary Barlow living in loving harmony with 90’s children’s TV presenter Andy Peters sadly proved not to be true and then a few years ago the band got back together and older and wiser made the amount of money they should have made the first time around. Without ridicules dance routines and trading on an air of credibility they targeted a wider audience, a fussy young family that shops at marks and spencer, you know the type. Then a couple of months ago it was announced that Robbie Williams would be re-joining reuniting the band’s original line up.

Having never listened to a Take That album I am sat at my keyboard in somewhat of a shell shocked stupor. It’s good. It’s actually very good. Excluding for a second the single ‘The Flood,’ the album closer resembles the work of late period Robbie Williams (you know the interesting stuff that no-one bought) and Damon Albern’s Gorrilaz than the drippy ballad territory that I expected. Is this an unusual turn? Someone tell me, I may have to buy another take that album. Gorillaz. Fuck me did I just compare Take That to Gorillaz…I did… I really did and I wasn’t doing it in a prickish way. That was a full blown genuine compliment.

Robbie Williams features heavily on the vocals and I imagine that he had a hand in some of the more esoteric lyrics. Gary Barlow, whilst I’m sure being heavily musically involved doesn’t sing as much as you would expect with Mark Owen taking more of a share than you would believe to be wise based on his thin vocal performance on previous singles, the god awful Shine being a prime example. In fact the more raw sound of Marks vocals are probably the best suited to edgier sounds on this album (Take That… Edgy sounds… Bloody hell…)

Album highlights are 'SOS' in which all the production toys are taken out of the box for Mark Owen and Robbie Williams to play with. Kidz would be amongst my favourites but for the fact that it skirts a bit too close to the Gorrillaz Feel Good Inc. (Which in turn I think has a questionably large debt to The Kinks Sunday Afternoon)

An album low point is ‘Affirmation’ which gives Howard a rare crack at the microphone with what sounds like an Ah-Ha B-side. However it is Album opener ‘The Flood’ which is for me the poorest track on the album. Its role as lead single strikes me as somewhat dishonest as it represents everything that Take That have been and not this new and relevant sound that the album goes on to play host to, though this may be the progress that the title declares.

It is unusual for an album by a mainstream pop act to have more than two or three quality songs all of which are inevitably released as singles. Seven good tracks out of ten is excellent and sures up Take That’s position as songwriters and musicians not merely pop play things.

Cee Lo Green: The Lady Killer: 9/10

Before we go any further there will be no jokes about Cee Lo Green killing ladies by lying on them. I doubt that it is original and you shouldn’t pick on a man about his weight.

For those of you who don’t know Cee Lo Green is best known as being two thirds of the partnership Gnarls Barkley (ok no more fat jokes, I promise.) but was writing and producing annoyingly catchy tunes before this. Chav-tastic and much parodied “Don’t you wish your girlfriend…” being the biggest hit that comes to mind.

‘The Lady Killers’ is Cee Lo’s debut solo album and has been generating plenty of talk receiving play across the commercial stations and on both Radio One and Two. The two singles that preceded the release of the album (Band of Horses cover ‘No One’s Going to Love You’ and ‘Fuck/Get You’) both hinted at a the album being a soulful affair, a back to roots sound owing more to Rhythm and Blues than Rhythm, Bass and Hip Hop swagger. This made the boastful, swaggering introductory track somewhat of a disappointment but not for long, in come heavy synthesised synths that morph into Spectoresque wall of sound strings over the course of the first track proper Bright Lights Bigger City. Next is ‘Fuck You’ which sounds like a bad mouthed Smokey Robinson track. To be honest I prefer the Radio edit of ‘Get You.’ I have heard it said that a good record is one that the listener is sure they have heard before ‘Fuck/Get You’ certainly fits this description and wouldn’t sound out of place on a crackling Motown LP.

Wildflower, has classy production and a great vocal performance but is one of a number of tracks that isn’t remarkable enough to maintain interest upon repeat listens. Classy production values make a return with Bodies and then we are right back to the retro feel of a polished horn section with vocals looming large in the mix. ‘Satisfied’ wouldn’t sound out of place in a Sammy Davies Jnr album.

The Motown vibe is brought back mid-album with ‘Fool For You’ and ‘It’s Ok’ and ‘Old Fashioned’ which are all songs with a timeless sound and lush velvet 60’s style production. The previously haunting No One’s Going to Love You is now reinterpreted to be warm and reassuring with layers of strings, a strong beat and understated guitar work. When Band of Horses tell me that no one is going to love me like they do I feel that the sentiment is mildly threatening and if I don’t heed their warning I will end up alone in a house of cats, but with Cee Lo, he is just letting me know that we are in a good place right now and I’m happy to snuggle down with him on that note.

This album could maybe have done with being two tracks shorter but other than that I am struggling to find fault. The production job is absolutely outstanding as is the song writing. What audience this album will attract is however a vexing question, Cee Lo’s hip hop/pop background means that he is marketed to a mainstream audience but the album may be better appreciated by a more specialist older crowd already acquainted with the music of Motown. My hope is that he does get the young listeners that are being courted and Motown is introduced to a new audience through this album.

Click on the link below to get your copy, it really is rather damn good.

Swedish House Mafia: More Socially Conscious than their Italian Counterparts.

Swedish House Mafia: One: 8/10



You can write down all that I know about dance music on the back of a teeny weeny stamp and still have enough room to scribe upon the thing all the words that I know in German and my opinions on Jordon’s love life, though I think this ultimately would say more about your suggestibility than my knowledge of dance music which is what I was prattling on about in the first place. Basically read my opinions with trepidation and consult someone who actually knows what they are talking about before buying.

Swedish House Mafia are a group of DJs and producers who are as a matter of fact; Swedish, produce what I am reliably informed is house music and have no known connection to the Mafia. Their first album ‘One’ came out just last week but they have been doing the rounds for some time and used to knock about with scourge of radio one summer playlists Eric Prydz.

The album launches with for me what is the stand out track ‘Miami 2 Ibiza.’ (Excuse the text spelling, my brother listens almost exclusively to dance music and the track listing is thankfully more decipherable than his Facebook page.) Tinie Tempah provides the vocals which flow nicely and are sexy, witty and consumerist which is the name of the game these days is it not? (I have a black BM she has a white TT, She wants to see what’s hiding in my CK briefs.) One of the best things about this album is the breadth of music referenced by the many samples used including: You’ve got the Love, The Four Tops, Empire of the Sun, MGMT and Coldplay to list just a few.

There is enough pop sensibility in here to ensure that the group get mainstream radio play, can demand massive fees for their DJ appearances and maintain their reputation in the specialist market. For the more hard core dance fans there are tracks such as Knas and Teenage Crime but to my ears and those ears being so tragically uncool these tracks leave me cold and yearning for the return of vocals and recognisable samples.

As only a casual listener of dance music there is enough to maintain interest across the whole thing. Samples that catch you off guard and the excellent production quality of the album to me make all the four to the floor nonsense worthwhile.

Joe McElderry: Ambitions 4/10

Oh dear a whole day late, but if you had set yourself the task of reviewing what I had committed myself to reviewing this week you would have changed your bed sheets, rearranged your wallet, washed the neighbour’s dog, driven your granny to the whist drive and cooked a fiendishly difficult dinner before getting round to pummelling this keyboard.

Seeing as you can’t turn a page at the moment without seeing the X-factor why should I be the one to buck this trend. This week I have been listening to the tones of Joe McElderry (very quietly in headphones, God help me if anyone overheard). For those of you who don’t know Joe was the winner of the X-factor 2009. After winning the competition he released a cover of ‘The Climb’ a song made famous by Smiley Virus with more plush production than misery in a job centre.

The album starts off with single ‘Ambitions.’ To say that a reality TV star’s album opening with its single is usually a bad sign is somewhat of an overstatement, but here we are. The single however deserves to be remarked upon as it sees Joe move away from the ballads that he made his brand during his weekly TV appearances. Ambitions, like the majority of this album is disco with a big pink D, I, S, C and yes even the O. I can’t imagine that the folks at Cowell Towers were too delighted when Joe was announced as their winner. Grannies loved him, kids loved him and Newcastle loved him but these aren’t exactly the most committed of record buyers (unless he had slipped a version of the Blaydon Races onto his debut.)

After the opening track the album moves through over produced rockier moments, sing a long choruses, cringe worthy ballads (Superman being the main protagonist in this assault on decency) and officially ends on the Disney saturated The Climb. Now this is where the album gets really interesting. Let the CD run for 5 minutes and in thumps the crushing guitars of a cover of Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name of showing that Joe has put all the unpleasantness of last Christmas behind him. You don’t believe me do you? It’s really there I promise.

Joe comes across as being the classic nice guy so it is a shame for him that come next year he will be more than likely be forgotten about replaced by someone less likeable but with more interesting songs.

Listen if you like: George Michael , Scissor Sisters and South Shields.
Stand Out Tracks: Ambitions, Until the Stars Run Out, Fahrenheit

Kings of Leon & Two Door Cinema Club

I will usually just be reviewing one album in this post however as a special Brucie bonus this review features two albums. I had initially intended on reviewing the new Kings of Leon album but for the reasons that will become evident in the short review .

Kings of Leon ‘Come Around Sundown.’ 2/10

This album is predictable at every turn and has, at every opportunity to do something of interest instead opted for something monotonous and mediocre. Prior to writing this review I was sort of prepared to compare KOL to U2 in that they have a knack of producing great singles that long outlive their albums. But that would be doing U2 a disservice as this album contains no stadium filling cock rock singles or in fact anything remarkable at all. A detailed analysis would follow but I don’t want to listen through enough times to be able to produce more words than this on the subject.
Stand Out Tracks: There really aren’t any.
Listen if you like: Feeling bored and numb. (The emotions not the bands)

Two Door Cinema Club ‘Tourist History’ 7/10

Two Door Cinema Club are one of them Welsh bands that seem to have gotten an awful lot of great pre-release press. There first LP ‘Tourist History’ is out next week but thanks to the wonders of the internet here is my musings on it.

The Cinema Club album plays host to angular guitar sounds, yelped verses and electric keys with the polished and produced choruses that have been so in vogue the past eighteen months. Unsure what I mean? Think Friendly Fires, Foals et al. Something of the pop sensibilities of the British or more specifically Welsh ‘Emo’ scene have also made their way on to the record the first example being the chorus and middle eight on ‘come back home’ which on first listen reminded me of the high production values of fellow sons of Wales’ Kids in Glass Houses.
Do you want it, do you want it, do you want it, do you want it all irritates until the refrain drops away to reveal some lovely electronic sounds that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Nintendo shooter circa 1996. (Did anyone here have a SNES scope? If so you were lucky bastards.) Drum performances are something that are rarely talked about and rightly so in the case of most modern rock and indie efforts. However, increasingly more innovative drum patterns have started to find their place in the indie rock scene. Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys and Vampire Weekend are all noticeable big hitters in this field. Whilst Two Door Cinema club don’t do anything outstanding in its originality they haven’t settled for the simplest of options and this occasionally catches your ear. (This is the Life, I Can Talk, Undercover Martyn.)

At the albums midpoint is the sample driven a cappella introduction of ‘I Can Talk’. Which is a song that screams “I AM THE SINGLE” being both a record that you can sing and dance to, much to the annoyance of those on the train where this review was written.

There are a couple of false starters buried in the album one example being ‘Undercover Martyn’ which starts as though it is going to try to hit some delicate notes but then gives up on that idea in pursuit of a rhythm led poptastic chorus before giving up on that and playing with the laser gun effects on the keyboard.

On the whole most tracks seem to be thirty seconds too long insisting on the repetition of choruses that aren’t always strong enough to survive sustained scrutiny. But that isn’t to say that there isn’t plenty to like. Not much of it is original but the majority of it plays well and whilst I’m sure Two Door Cinema Club won’t be changing the course of music they fit nicely into what is happening around them at the moment.
Listen If you like: Friendly Fires, The Sunshine Underground, Owl City, The Departure, The Rapture and Cow Bells (the instrument not the band)
Stand Out Tracks: I Can Talk, Come Back Home, Do You Want it All.