Reivews G - O

G

Geezers of Nazareth - Songs on the radio
It's the closest to schizophrenia that a song could possibly be before it loses all sense of structure. It's perilously close to the edge, there is just so much going on, it's fucking brilliant.

Giant Haystacks - We are being observed
The word that comes to mind when listening to "we are being observed" by Giant Haystacks is "manic".

Giant Loop of Sound - Demo
Think of Paul Weller singing Smiths songs whilst being backed by The Thrills and managed by Brian Wilson and you're halfway there. Throw in the 'Randall and Hopkirk Orchestra' (a couple of old timers culled from the local brass band)

The German Exchange - Review of Onward (Demo Cd)
The German Exchange, however, are nothing to do with Michael Jackson, nor are they bunch of school children as my dad thought when I told him about them

The guild league - Private transport
In any case, it is beautiful, clever and witty and full of spot-on lines that break my heart that seem to come at least two in every song.

The Guild League - Inner North
A single one of these things would have been enough, but when I stop and think about it was the words. Words that feel so perfect I knew I could roll around the mouth for days and not get bored.

H

Handsome Train - Pop- 7"
But I think it's I Want You To Know -a charming melody that sounds like a love song even though it says "I want you to know that I won't be around even if you change your mind"- that is the best one. It sums up all I love in Handsome Train.

Harper Lee - All things can be mended
From start to finish the album is filled with a gentle heartache backed by melancholic melodies. Written in black and white, it will wrap its arms around you and draw you into the slow rhythmic sinking feeling that it creates.

Harry Hunks - Revolutions from pink to pale
It's simple, but convoluted, the structure is plain, but the emotive nature is twisting and turning. The cello break makes 'Lets Go to Vienna' simply to die for.

Havana Guns - She always goes on
Each song is filled with infinite opportunity and mystery and caused fresh surges of adrenaline to pulse through my body.

Homescience - Jungling
The almost random string of words conjure up the kind of enchanted world that seems to get lost past adulthood: "Sandals and watching frogs jumping to be apart/ Late nights and fireflies stretching to be apart"

Hormones in Abudance - Old people are people too
And I know that 'Bad songs, bad people' has a cutting 'wish I'd thought of that' lyric and a tune to make you dance yourself stupid. And the fact that every four-minute disco should end with chiming guitars and in-and-out of love girl/boy vocals like on '

Hundred Handed - On parade
Virginia Wolfe said, "When a book lacks suggestive power, however hard it hits the surface of the mind it cannot penetrate within."

Hunky Dory - Over the Rainbow - Cd Lp
...they're what pop is all about - they're like they've fallen from the sky - the make you reconsider how magical you think the world can be.

The Hidden Cameras - The smell of our own - Cd Lp
What would Hidden Cameras be in my opinion, if I hadn't read so many times already that "The smell of our own" is a masterpiece? They would be a charming band with a good imagination that sound like they record in churches.

I

J

Jeffery Lewis - It's the Ones Who've Cracked That the Light Shines Through
The one I'm finding myself drawn to here is 'beautiful'.

Jet Johnson - Breakfast with Jet Johnson
Music is amazing. It reminds you of things that have happened and even some that haven't.

John Parkes - John Parkes - Faithlessnessless - Album
Music meets art and comes off all the better, I only wish that this was the soundtrack to a film, it deserves to be, it’s a must.

K

I Am Kloot - Gods & Monsters
It extols the virtues of shopping bags, bus stops, drizzle, wheelie bins, petrol fumes, graffiti, unemployment, mattresses dumped in canals, next doors vicious dog shitting in your garden and burnt out cars being dumped in the park.

I am Kloot - I Believe
A thrilling extollation of the wonders of Shameless style inner city council estates, of dumped mattresses and burnt out cars, of kids on corners in hoodies and Burberry baseball caps, of teenage mums and of discarded glue bags and used needles behind the

I am Kloot - I am Kloot - Maybe I Should - Single
It’s frighteningly exhilarating and purposely short, it’s over before you know it, with a flash and a bang and sure fire intent. It leaves you, as all the best songs do, desperate for more, gagging and foaming at the mouth.

Keane - Hopes and fears
Much talked about in the music press, and on the back of a nationwide tour, the Brighton three piece unleash a what could have possibly become over hyped debut on the general public at last. And over hyped it certainly is not.

Kicker - Our Wild Mercury Years
Railing against aloof coolness, insincerity and resolute cynicism, Kicker embrace aspects of eighties pop, northern soul and the underground in equal measure, and with it they produce thrilling, inspiring and breathtaking three minute slices of real life.

The Kills - Pull A U- CD single
'Pull A U' is a straightforward rock tune: the female vocalist sounds cool, the guitars evoke Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love' and the lyrics refer to familiar rock images

L

Lampchop - Aw C'mon / No You C'mon
It feels like a best of. It isn't one; each of the 24 tracks is new and previously unreleased. Contained within them, though, are echoes of the band's previous six full-length releases.

Language of Flowers - Songs about you
And there's a certain style too: a half-innocent, half-cool way of being in a band, a way of saying "this is who we are, we sort of hope you like it."

Last Nights T.V. - Letters Without Envelopes
I get the feeling that song writing is a way of purging those feelings and of exorcising those demons, and it makes me realise just how important that is.

Le Neon - Luss - Cd Mini Album
At first listen, they sound mighty chaotic, as if it's all going to fall apart any moment, but this adds to the bands charm as they manage to hold it together.

Liberty Ship - The Tide
Chart music sells not because it is good but because it is constantly being given ar play. This music is very good. All you have to do is to give it the air play yourself.

Lorna - Static patterns and souvenirs - album
On the surface it all seems very basic, stripped back and skeletally fragile, but listen again and there are layers and layers of subtle, delicate orchestration going on that belie the lo-fi nature of the whole production.

Lovejoy - ...Everybody Hates
The whole sound is subtle and understated whilst maintaining a steady steely gaze and an unrelenting hold.

The Libertines - I just don't know what to dow ith myself - Cd single
Listening to these singles is like an amalgam of music from the last 50 (or more) years.

The Lucksmiths - A little distraction
...an upbeat, fairly bouncy, sweetly contagious affair reminiscent of my favourite Lucksmiths tunes of the past. (And which, let us not forger, is about almost having faith.)

The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners
You can imagine driving down a dark and deserted room road in the middle of a rain swept night or sitting out in the garden on a warm summers day. Put simply, it is music for always.

The Lucksmiths - The Lucksmiths - A Hiccup in your Happiness - Single
The title track opens delicately and swiftly metamorphoses into a stomping dizzy romp of three parts pop, two parts northern soul all thrown together with a shot of tequila to drown the sorrows.

M

M J Hibbett - The warriors of Nanpantam
From the is a tale of the perfect love song that never was to Hibbet's Golden Rules of Beer the CD had me smiling.

M.J. Hibbett and The Validators - M.J. Hibbett and the Validators - We Validate - Album
Some CDs are like sunny days, and happy dogs. No matter how you were feeling before they appeared, you can't help but smile the second they burst into your life.

Math and Physics Club - Weekends Away e.p.
From the opening chimes of the title track the mood is set, it’s uplifting, it’s heart warming, it’s an indie kids heaven.

Math and Physics Club - Movie Ending Romance
I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but I do know this: life without the Math and Physics Club would be a much duller place.

Matmoss -
You don't own a record quite like this.

Mclusky - The Difference Between Me And You Is That I'm Not On Fire
Ultimately, though, those with the patience and ear to give it a few listens will be rewarded by an album to blow the cobwebs off anything. Some could see it as the start of mclusky growing up.

Mercury Tilt Switch / The A Forest - Split single
There is a warming aura about split singles, about musical offerings that are put out under a blanket of sheer exuberance, self belief and swaggering confidence.

Milky Wimpshake - Needed: Heart Handbook 7"
Calling this Twee-Punk because the two words hate each other and I like seeing them together. Bashing out three chord rhythms on guitars whilst playing keyboards with one finger.

Miniskirt - Woody Allen likes guitar pop
They can also name a song about being so sad and lonely you're feeling nobody's on your side 'Woody Allen likes Japanese noise rock' and make that sound fitting. And they can sing it in a way that lifts my heart all the way to heaven.

Misterlee - The night of the killer longface
Musically, less is more for Misterlee. Simple but effective, the album features little production, but doesn't suffer for it; in fact, it adds to the unusual eeriness the permeates the album.

Modest Mouse - Good news for people who like bad news
There's the lyrics - not quite classic poetry, granted, but any band that turns "You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?" into an anthemic chant deserves some sort of recognition.

Mommy & Daddy - Live how you listen- CD Lp
So...this is one of THOSE albums. The first thing that comes to mind is 'God, this is great'. The second is 'God, this is fucking fantastic'.

Money Can't Buy Music - Money Cant Buy Music - We Will All Asphyxiate – Single
The role of songwriter is obviously important, either that or he just has an unfettered natural ability to create stunningly effective, often heart warming, sometimes desperate lyrical slices of life set to a backdrop of always appropriate musical soundsc

Morrissey - You are the quarry
Seven years in the making, 'You Are The Quarry' has a wealth of animosity, acrimony and ill feeling to draw on. High Court Judges, Accountants, Taxmen, Reality T.V. Pop stars, Ex-Band mates and world leaders are all fair game. Infact the only person to co

Mr Airplane Man - Review of Peel Session
Okay so I know MAM don't sound all that fantastic, they don't exactly sound new and fresh, but to my young ears they sound great nonetheless.

My Teenage Stride - I am sorry - Cd Ep
If this were released fifteen years ago, it would surely have come in a photocopied sleeve, possibly with a postcard of a railway station.

The Magic Numbers - Forever Lost
Utterly infectious, stupendously melodious, spine tinglingly harmonious, ‘Forever Lost’, the debut single from The Magic Numbers points the way back to how pop should be.

The Metric Mile - How to beat the SAT (Cd-r EP)
The 5 songs on the EP are as joyful sounding as they are desperate sounding to me; I've often wondered how jangling strings across major chords could make that happen.

The Moldy Peaches - Review of County Fair/Rainbows - Cd single
It also sees the peaches playing with a full band of 7 member without losing any of their indie lo-fi charm

The Montgolfier Brothers - Review Of Seventeen Stars - Cd Lp
They come from Manchester, where, according to their record label's website, Durutti Column and 'Unknown Pleasures' are always on the radio."

The Mountain Goats - - Talahassee
The reason you should get this album is quite simple: the lyrics. At times heartfelt, at others heart-warming, at others just plain random

N

Nightmare of You - Nightmare of You - The Days Go By Oh So Slow - Single
It’s a long time since something has sounded so fresh, so invigorating, so, simply exciting and left me wanting so much, so soon.

O

The Occasional Flickers - Rain Until Monday - 7"
Needless to say I could fall in love with a band just because they sing 'faith brings good fortune'. It was about time someone said that in a song.

The One Who Flew - The One Who Flew - Corporate Love Songs - Album
This soothes, this sways, it glides and sashays into the room like a black and white Hepburn retreating to her trailer to sink gin and allow a fleeting moment of despair before putting on the familiar Hollywood face for the cameras.

The One Who Flew - The One Who Flew - Kingston Bridge - Album
I know that the warming arms or reassurance will collect all my hopes and fears into their tight embrace and put right all that is wrong, I know this, I know it well.

The Owls - Our hopes and dreams
What I am trying to say is that it is an honest mix of whimsical things, simple without being simplistic, stronger than it seems at first and not so much bittersweet as it is happysad.