Adam Green – Minor Love

Adam Green - Minor Love

Adam Green is perhaps most famous for being the lead singer of anti-folk band, The Moldy Peaches, who are perhaps most famous for having a song in the hit film Juno. As a solo artist he has released five albums to modest critical and commercial success.

On sixth album Minor Love, Green doesn’t seem to have changed an awful lot since 2002. This is no bad thing. He sells his short and sweet indie-pop songs on his tender voice, which some people have described as an acquired taste. I don’t agree with this. There is something so classic and subtle about his vocal performance on this and all of his albums that I can’t help falling in love with his voice every time I hear it. … Continue Reading

The Swell Season – Strict Joy

The Swell Season

In 2007 John Carney, armed with some handy cams and a fairly small budget, asked old band mate and The Frames front man Glen Hansard to contribute some songs to his independent Irish film called Once. The film at that time starred Cillian Murphy and a Czech musician called Marketa Irglova. After a few disputes, actor Cillian Murphy dropped out of the project and John Carney instead employed Glen Hansard to play the lead role.

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The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips have been around since the early ’80s, receiving more or less constant critical acclaim, if relatively modest commercial success. An early hit for the band, ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’, brought them into the spotlight, but it wasn’t until the late ’90s that they made their artistic breakthrough.

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Left With Pictures – Beyond Our Means

Left With Pictures - Beyond Our Means

Left With Pictures‘ Beyond Our Means is an album of many things. Great songs sit next to forgettable songs, incredible musicianship sits next to overdone current pop clichés and the result is thankfully something very likeable.

The London based five piece have already released two EPs to near unanimous critical acclaim.

Between them the band play a whole range of instruments which create their multi-textured pop-folk sound. They have two lead singers, though they all join in on the harmonies. I’ve not got a huge amount of negative things to say about this album, but one problem I have is actually in some of the vocal performances.

Not only do they sing in the same subtly exaggerated cockney accent you hear everywhere at the moment, there are also parts where the harmonies just don’t work, leading to a slightly amateur sound. There is nothing wrong with the vocalists, they’re both great singers, but when everything around them is so polished and perfectly produced, they can’t afford to be a millimetre out of tune. When they are, it is very noticeable. … Continue Reading