New music
Thomas H. Green
Ah, Jeff Buckley - so much to answer for. Damien Rice, Bon Iver, William Fitzsimmons, James Morrison, David Gray, James Vincent McMorrow, Chet Faker, Joshua Radin and on and on and on, endless waves of male singer-songwriters – usually bearded - who signify emotion through falsetto voice-breaking, the most tired, tedious technique in modern pop and rock. There have been valiant attempts to send things in new directions but no one bought them (eg Jack Peñate’s “Tonight’s Today” single). It would be a welcome wonder, then, if the sterling debut solo album from Nick Mulvey, once of crossover Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
At last night’s Eurovision Song Contest, host country Denmark submitted “Cliché Love Song”, a weedy Bruno Mars-a-like designed to ensure they did not win for a second year running. It came ninth. While understandable that Danish national broadcaster DR would try to duck the expense of staging the extravaganza in Copenhagen again in 2015, they could have displayed some imagination by choosing an entrant that was certainly not a winner but had some worth. Instead of Basim wth his paper-thin “Cliché Love Song”, Aalborg’s Get Your Gun would have made a grand choice to showcase Denmark in fine Read more ...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
“If 50 is the new black, hooray, this could be your lucky day,” Tori Amos sings on “16 Shades of Blue”, the track from new album Unrepentant Geraldines most obviously touched by the big birthday that the singer, who has been releasing music since her early 20s, just passed. With its woozy beats, odd sound effects and references to the paintings of Paul Cézanne it’s a curious song, likely to throw those more fond of Amos’ recent forays into classical and orchestral music. Still it’s the one whose lyrics - a meandering stream-of-consciousness on femininity and ageing - that have struck me the Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Josef K: The Only Fun in TownJosef K seem like one that got away. Their fellow Postcard Records’ bands Aztec Camera and Orange Juice had high-profile afterlives with, respectively, the careers of their songwriters and front men Roddy Frame and Edwin Collins. After his band split, Josef K’s Paul Haig went on to have a string of fantastic, accessible releases – including collaborations with New Order – but none clicked with the mainstream. His old outfit’s legacy is though heard less directly through Franz Ferdinand, whose agitated forward-thrust derives directly from Josek K. It’s also Read more ...
Aimee Cliff
Before Janelle Monáe even materialises at Brixton’s O2 Academy, her presence is already felt in the stagecraft. Lab-coated, bow-tied techies unsheath the instruments from their black covers, revealing a glimmering monochrome set-up in the centre of a giant white cube reminiscent of the "Q.U.E.E.N." video. Three - count ‘em, three - men see to the polishing of Monáe’s microphone. The build-up is every bit as meticulous as the stunning 90 minute set that’s to follow.When Monáe does appear, she’s wheeled onstage in a straightjacket. Across her early EPs and albums The ArchAndroid and The Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Tonight Birmingham was treated to a guitar fest of epic proportions, as the Japanese, Hawkwind-esque experience that is Bo Ningen hit town. Prior to the main event, we were treated to the boisterous thrash of The Scenes, who finished their set with the flippant yet amusingly named “Anorexia Is Boring”, and the Teenage Fanclub-esque 12-strings of Younghusband. Neither, however, quite prepared the crowd for the ear-lacerating noise and mesmerising groove of the headliners.Taigen Kawabe and his band of psychedelic renegades arrived on stage amid swirls of dry ice. Dressed like extras from the Read more ...
joe.muggs
Little Dragon are all about the slow burn. The Swedish band had been going for 10 years before they released their first single in 2006, and in the time since then they've built their profile steadily through hard gigging and interesting collaborations, rather than any massive smashes. Their music reflects this too, tending to the insidious rather than the immediate, and that seems to be the case more than ever on their fourth album.They have a lot going for them, but above all else their strengths are in Yukimi Nagano's voice, and in their production. Both of these have all the control, Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
A mournful voice sings “even though it hurts, even though it scars, love me when it storms, love me when I fall” over a strummed acoustic guitar which shares the lyrics dolefulness. As the centrepiece of her set last night, Lykke Li’s delivery of her new album I Never Learn’s “Love Me Like I'm Not Made of Stone” asked a lot from the audience at her first London show for three years. With the familiar came the new. With the upbeat came the sorrowful. And lots of it.Although the Swedish, LA-dwelling singer-songwriter has shifted mountains of records in the wake of her last album, 2011’s globe- Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Although the trademark aqueous shimmer is still recognisable on Life Among the Savages, the sound of San Francisco’s Papercuts has changed since 2011’s Fading Parade. On his fifth album as Papercuts, Jason Quever has kept arrangements more sparse than ever yet everything has a distance. His world appears to be one of permanent dusk, when melancholy is inescapable. Life Among the Savages is the sound of outside looking in.The song titles lay it out: “Still Knocking at the Door”, “New Body”, “Staring at the Bright Lights”, “Afterlife Blues”, “Tourist”. Quever’s sense of isolation brings to this Read more ...
Aimee Cliff
Sliding onto the stage of the O2 Arena in a leotard emblazoned with her own mouth and tongue, Miley Cyrus immediately starts bouncing around screaming, “I’m not going down without a fucking fight!”Fighting spirit, aimed at nothing and everything, is the heart of Bangerz. It’s Miley against the world - and that includes her audience, whom she repeatedly refers to as “you fuckers” and projectile-spits all over. She’s a total brat from start to finish. This being her first show back on the road after a spell in hospital, she even turns her anti-authority backlash in the direction Read more ...
Matthew Wright
Robert Cray’s veteran blues band made a compelling case for their unique blend of soul and blues at the Barbican last night. Despite the five Grammys, record sales well into seven figures, and investiture in the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011 at the precocious age of 57, he’s sometimes suspected of watering down the blues tradition. What he’s actually done is preserve the most of the attitudes and atmosphere of traditional blues, while modernising some of the instrumentation and phrasing.Off-stage, Cray is considered and soft-spoken. He comes across as a clean-shaven, fresh-scrubbed version of Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Anyone who is unfamiliar with Swans might reasonably assume that these veterans of New York’s early eighties “noise” scene to be well past their best by now. As powerful as Black Sabbath on steroids, Swans’ music has taken in industrial noise, art rock, gothic country and, since reforming as a going concern in 2010, brooding, apocalyptic mini-symphonies. To Be Kind is their 13th studio album, the band has been around (on and off and in various incarnations) for more than 30 years and, singer and bandleader, Michael Gira won’t be seeing his 60th birthday again. However, such an assumption Read more ...