Idlewild – Post Electric Blues

Idlewild – Post Electric Blues

It may come as a surprise to you to learn that Scottish rockers Idlewild are still going strong. Despite singer Roddy Woomble looking increasingly likely to go solo (he has released two folk albums with compatriot contemporaries) his main band continues to make enjoyable, melodic rock music.

It’s over ten years now since the band exploded onto the punk-rock scene with their thrillingly brief debut mini-album Captain, and over time their sound has mellowed considerably. Yet Post Electric Blues, their seventh record, harbours that early energy. In fact, it’s their best in years, and arguably up there with their finest album, 2003’s The Remote Part.

Of course, the method of release raised eyebrows. Fans were asked to pay £15 up front to fund recording. In return, they would receive downloads of live tracks, personal dedications in the album sleeve, and the record itself as soon as it was ready, months before release. Indeed, Post Electric Blues is unlikely hit the shelves until much later this year.

Those that have kept faith in the group after their dangerous wanderings into AOR territory will have wondered what the band would do next. Last summer Idlewild played a string of tiny club shows, supporting themselves acoustically before playing some of their most raucous live sets ever.

It hinted at a return to their roots, and Post Electric Blues threatens to follow up on that sweatily-delivered promise. Opening track ‘Younger Than America’ has a vaguely country feel to it, but the pace of it is a clear gear forward from their last effort, the tepid Make Another World.

The following two tracks, ‘Readers And Writers’ (likely to be the lead single) and ‘City Hall’, are among the band’s best ever output, and that is no exaggeration. They brim with a vitality rarely found in the band’s recent albums. Unfortunately, the rest of the album fails to live up to their excellence.

The soft and folky pair of songs ‘(The Night Will) Bring You Back To Life’ and ‘Take Me Back To The Islands’ seem more suitable for a Woomble side-project, not fitting in to the album’s rougher sound at all, and the album fades at the end. It’s a disappointment after such a promising start. … Continue Reading

Arctic Monkeys – Crying Lightning

Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning

2007 should have belonged to Arctic Monkeys. More festival headlining slots than you could shake a stick at coupled with a superb follow-up to their record-breaking debut album meant the year was there for the taking.

But dodgy sound at Glastonbury robbed them off their crowning moment, and the weather spoiled their giant near-homecoming gigs at Lancashire County Cricket Club.

So ‘Crying Lightning’, the first peek at their new album Humbug, represents something of a crossroads for the Sheffield band.

Sessions with Josh Homme in the Mojave Desert led to speculation that the Monkeys were about to go Seriously Rock. But ‘Crying Lightning’ seems to be very much a bridge from Favourite Worst Nightmare to their new era. … Continue Reading

The Cribs – We Were Aborted

The Cribs

Johnny Marr joining The Cribs might just be the best thing to happen to British guitar music in years. Most thrilling live band in the country + indie guitar legend + growing mainstream success = amazing, yes?

Indeed. ‘We Were Aborted‘ is probably the best song the Cribs have ever written. It fizzles along at more than double the speed of their usual scuzzy racket, with Marr’s mature yet somehow youthful wah-wah Guitar Hero-esque fretwork making it pretty much the perfect summer noise anthem.

This is the sort of record that will inspire kids to pick up an instrument and start a band. Holier-than-thou hacks have been lauding the recession as it will apparently produce rebellious music. There’s no sign of it yet, but fortunately the Cribs are just as much fun as ever. You’ll even forget your lack of job, money, spouse, prospects and so on for its three-and-a-bit minutes of joyful pandemonium. … Continue Reading