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| Live Reviews | Interviews & Other Music Articles |
Reivews P - Z
P
Pale sunday - A weekend with Jane Pas/Cal - Honey, we're ridiculous Pastel Vespa - Review of L' Anarchie - Cd Lp Persil Zea - Golden square Pipas - Bitter Club ep The Pines - True love waits vol. 2 The Polyphonic Spree - The Beginning Stages Of The Polyphonic Spree - Cd & Dvd Q
R
Razorcuts - A is for Alphabet Rilo Kiley - More adventurous The Raveonettes - Attack of the Ghost Rider - Cd single The Research - The Research - The Way We Used to Smile - Single S
Sam Huxley - Very good Saturday Looks Good To Me - Every night Schwervon! - Poseur Seedling - I'm Jill's smirking revenge - split 7" (A Side) Shout Out Louds - Howl Howl Gaff Gaff Shumai - Tastes like summer Silverland - Swimming upstream Slipslide - The world can wait Speaking in capitals - Demo cd Speedreader - Speedreader - In a Way We're All Winners - Single Spiritualized - She Kissed Me (It Felt Like A Hit) - Cd Single Spiritualized - Amazing Grace - Cd Lp Sportique - Communique no.9 Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power (Cd Lp) & Golden Retriever (Cd Single) The Snowdrops - The Snowdrops - Sleepydust - Single The Starlets - Further into the night forever- CD Lp The Steinbecks - Branches and fronds brushing the windows T
20-22s - 20-22s album The Thrills - So much for the city - Cd Lp The Tidy-Ups - Been waiting for a million years for the bus to take me out of here Thee Moths - Sand in our pockets This Poison! - Magazine 1986 - 1988 Tim Booth - Bone (LP) Tim Burgess - I believe - Cd Lp Tompaulin - Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt Trembling Blue Stars - Southern skies appear brighter EP Tugboat - Tugboat - album U
U.n.p.o.c. - The fifth column Undercut - To Die For V
Various - Un40frmulated - Compilation Album Various Artists - Secret Home Party 7" Various Artists - Pow! to the people - Double Cd Various Artists - Matinee 50 Compilation- Cd Lp various artists - Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before Various Artists - Matinee Autumn Assortment Various Artists - Romantic and square is hip and aware (A Smiths tribute) Various Artists - Hey, where'd the summer go? (A Humblebee records compilation) Victorian English Gentlemens Club - Victorian English Gentlemens Club - Live in London Virginia Astley - From Gardens Where We Feel Secure Vitesse - What can not be, but is... Viva Voce - The Heat Can Melt Your Brain W
The Waving Tree - Review of Sunday Afternoon (Vinyl Ep) The Wedding Present - Interstate 5 (single) The Wedding Present - I'm from further north than you The Wedding Present - Take Fountain The Wedding Present - The Wedding Present - Ringway to SeaTac - Single The White Stripes - I just don't know what to do with myself - Cd single The White Stripes - The Hardest Button To Button The Windmills - Now is then VVAA Flair Of Spain - Don Quijote - Cd Lp Weirdo - Hey, hey, we're the weirdos EP Weirdo - 26 Minutes Winnebago Deal - Review of Plata O Plomo (7 track mini-album) X
(x) is greater than (y) - Review of Negative Snow - Cd Lp Y
The Young Tradition - California morning Young Tradition - Northern Drive Z
a small piece of sunshine to add to the music collection of any indiepop lover.
"Honey, we're ridiculous" is sunny-day, driving-fast-by-the-seaside music, but it is heartbreakingly so: it is Beach Boys-descendant indiepop with a dash of rock (of the time when this aspired to produce operas at that too) and a shady poetic twist.
This is what Pastel Vespa are - cabaret but fantastic.
Would you fall in love with them?
I already have!
It is undeniabley one of the best examples of bagel-pop that I’ve ever heard.
Although the subject of the matter is poignant, the clever wording of the lyrics contains a dry humour, which is sure to have you smiling.
All of the songs here are big, theatrical and joyous hymns to no particular faith and only the stoniest of hearts could ever hope to deny them.
They made sweet, jangly post punk pop with an underlying poetic streak... that must have broken the hearts of indiepoppers the world over before they were even called indiepoppers.
Rilo Kiley, more then most, make music for semi-consciousness. You could take that the wrong way, but I don't mean they're boring - rather, they craft simple, sweet pop songs ideal for drifting off into daydreams.
The Ravonettes don't rely on fuzzy guitar pedals to make themselves sound more retro; they do it simply from singing, and the melodies that rise and fall sound like they should come from a 1960's B-movie.
It’s hip and it’s pop and you cannot fail to shift your feet to the infectious hooks of The Research then you must be residing somewhere between tone deaf, lifeless and listless.
We'll forgive him the cheek of calling the first song 'Very Good' - acoustic, with a strong melody, it's certainly catchy.
A case in point is the lovely summery 'Lift me up', which is at the same time probably the most blatant Supremes rip-off you're likely to hear, and yet absolutely gorgeous and breezy in its own right.
To say the music is slightly infectious would be like saying a giraffe is slightly tall, or a zebra is slightly stripy. This is music that makes you feel good. It grabs you, it shakes, it makes you want to dance.
Replete with catchy, harmonised vocals and guitars, it's a song that easily slips into your mind and not so easily slips out again.
There isn’t too much too technical with this record, at no point does it even get near disappearing up it’s own arse. There is no pretention, no posturing or posing, none whatsoever, it’s simple, pure, valid pop music.
The whole feel of the record is that of a D.I.Y. pop adventure, of sunny days, of optimism and hope. Not so much of confidence, but definitely of self belief.
As soon as I started to listen to this CD it grabbed me and I knew I liked it and that was it. I can't 'unlike' it, it is good if not spectacular.
The album revels in easy charm alternative country.
I like the weird idea behind the song, of a man being attached to a plastic brink, I think because it would make life easier, but I’m not sure. It is a great happy song.
Byrne bears his soul, open raw, appealing for understanding, but not trusting his audience to get it.
With its blues metal riffs, classic rock and roll vocals 'She Kissed Me (It Felt Like A Hit)' is bristling with class.
'You only get a lifetime to try' sings Jason Pierce - and boy, is he going to try everything.
Therein lies the major problem with this album. This sort of nonsense will only work once. When the cartoon anarchist is drawn again three decades later, the paucity of content behind the caricature is only too readily apparent.
There is also a lot of experimentation that ensures the album never sounds stale.
The new order-esque electronica? Check! Pet shop boys hand claps? Check! These are the bones upon which the soothing hushed vocals sit.
The songs dance and sway, creating a softer less formidable world. Majestic orchestral arrangements back electric guitars.
Let it superficially wash over you and you still know that you are listening to quality music but once the lyrics sink in and the true power of this composition becomes really apparent.
I love debut albums by young bands full of self belief, passion and verve. Albums by groups of kids who feel that they have to work hard at what they are doing so that the world will sit up and take notice.
"Enough!" I hear you cry. "Are they really that bad?"
The Tidy ups pick all these strings up with amazing grace - looking, or rather sounding, as if they're not doing anything special; they use them to weave short, fast, brilliant pop songs and they don't forget to tie them in a bow at the end.
Sand in our pockets is proof that life doesn't need to be complicated and hi-tech. In fact it is proof that it is better when it is not.
This Poison! should be lauded as one of the things that remained great in a decade that was in the main destined for the dustbin.
But give a little more thought and you'll hear the sound of a man who despite being one of the busiest men in pop has an air of calmness in everything he says and does.
Ultimately, despite all the breezy harmonica, soaring strings, bouncy music and tinkling piano, the music of Brian Wilson or John Phillips does not spring to mind.
I can't believe it's been three years or so since these records overwhelmed me and took over my tiny bedroom, my tiny mind, my tiny world. It was all too easy back then, what with me being a fool for anyone willing to romanticise the weekend heroes and sm
So then, lurking bashfully at song number 4 on the new Trembling Blue Stars e.p is 'Hurry home through the crowds'. Gently plucking guitars, handclaps and words about being so much in love couldn't sound much better than this.
Canada rocks, it’s official, all that maple syrup and ice hockey seems to have finally paid off. Finally, the land of the mounted policeman, the giant redwood and some kind of defiant insistence of certain occupants to remain French is giving us some good
And those initials? Well, I've decided they stand for 'Uniquely Nice Pop On CD'. Of course, they don't. But I'm sure they won't mind.
Surely it’s more important to elucidate how a track feels, what it makes you think of and how it effects how you look at the world on a day to day basis. Who gives a shit whether or not they ‘..are the next U2’, not me, that’s for sure and I would hazard
Un40rumlated could have avoided being the black sheep of the Unlabel catalogue if only they had kept it simple, boiled it down and worked the goodness. They’ve done it before, I’ll guarantee they’ll do it again – and before too long I’ll wager.
There's a drawing of a flying car with wings and the names of the artists floating in the sky printed in dreamy blue ink and hand-made letters (each cut out of different-coloured carton and stuck on the cover in different combinations on each copy, too) t
A nice of collection of songs for anyone wishing to nostalgically remember the days of track and field, or for that matter, for anyone who just likes good pop music.
The Ultimate Dream and something everyone must strive towards; or the fact that I am considerably in awe of the people who managed to release all this stuff
Generally, such collections have a couple of tracks that get you itching for the 'fast-forward' button but this is consistently enjoyable from start to finish
The CD features an exclusive Slipslide song which tells the tail of a romance that dies for the sake of a career. Considering the subject matter the tune surprisingly positive.
The album is not full of pale imitations, but who needs that anyway?
Instead expect to find old songs being told from a new angle with a strength of feeling that the artists involved in this project must be given credit for.
Over the 24 songs the quality does not dip, the tunes are almost relentless, and there are plenty "Ooh, who's this?" reach-for-the-tracklisting moments.
Unassuming off-stage yet towering and menacing on-stage. The new paradox that is The Victorian English Gentlemans Club.
This is an unexpected, eclectic choice for an anniversary re-release but rather a fine one. If there were more days like this, I reckon we'd all be a little bit happier.
The way I would go silent, while dreaming of a brighter world, as always
The discordant bass lines and the pounding drums lain so low in the scheme of things allow the optimistic rays of piano and guitar to shine through magnificently.
A Sunday Afternoon is exactly what I would call music to make you smile.
How many times have you found yourself leaping around the room to a tune wondering how the writer managed to be so in tune with how you were feeling?
The press blurb claims that 'I'm From Further North Than You' is "far and away better than anything that The Wedding Present have released previously", a bold claim indeed, but in a way I am inclined to agree.
Again, backing vocals boost the performance, they are simply perfect, and combined with the spine tinglingly erotic cello break we are given perhaps the most perfect song of the decade.
Just as the big bang was his birth, this is the story David Gedge’s life imploding and falling in on itself as the romance that he thought would last forever crumbles to dust.
It is hard to think of Bacharach and David ever imagining their song sounding like this.
Also, featured on the single is version of the Soledad Brothers 'St. Ides Of March' recorded as a soundcheck for a show in Berlin in April.
Comparisons to the Go-Betweens in particular are easy to make and perhaps should be avoided.
About what happened when a collection of Spanish musicians decided to honour the ingenious hidalgo Don Quijote.
Intelligent, energetic, anthemic, elegiac, delicate, sophisticated, introspective, apoplectic, melodic, menacing, subtle, it's all here.
Everything of beauty must be treasured; nothing of such elegant, insistent, forceful yet effortless beauty can ever be worthless.
It whips by you like storm and leaves you dizzy, disorientated & wondering what hit you.
At school I've always thought that algebra was a very pointless subject and never paid it much attention, but bands as good as (x) is greater than (y) make it sound okay.
For it is a song full of pop cliches - California, sun, morning, summer, pebbles in her hair and Beach Boys' harmonies, Byrds' guitars and a trumpet - but with a real pop feeling and the most beautiful phrase I've heard all year.
With a name like Northern Drive I was expecting a cold, Nordic sort of an album with lots of sharp, glittery songs, pared down to the bare necessities. What I got was much sunnier, with lots of laid back, happy-sounding tunes.