Eddie Halliday – Replaced By These Colours

Eddie Halliday - Replaced By These Colours

With Replaced By These Colours being his second album in four months, it seems Eddie Halliday is determined to stamp his name on 2009 as the frontrunner for modern folk music.

Following up February’s debut of Run for the Woods, this second swig of Halliday reveals a bold and rich sound that sounds as if it has been crafted over years rather than months. ‘Wilderness’ launches the album (after the ‘Trumpets’ intro) with a song brimming with cheer, optimism and a sense of wholesomeness that I can only imagine as being akin to relaxing in a vast American countryside ranch.

In many ways it has a similar feel of Americana as M. Ward’s latest album. Like the US folk singer’s Hold Time, Halliday offers up a mix of tracks in his album, squeezing an array of emotions out of each. For instance, the charming ‘Wilderness’ is immediately followed by the guitar-heavy, overdrive-y ‘Be Warned’ to change up the pace between songs. … Continue Reading

New Found Glory – Not Without A Fight

New Found Glory - Not Without A Fight

This album title aptly sums up the last gig New Found Glory played in London where fights nearly broke out amongst the crowd. Playing last November, the band was playing purely to their devotees, having not released a studio album in two years.

So three years after Coming Home, the Californian band return with their sixth record, not counting the covers of famous movie songs in From the Screen to your Stereo Part II. Following their brief outing as the International Superheroes of Hardcore (parody with a slice of turn-the-dial-to-11 added), Not Without A Fight brings New Found Glory back to their roots of pop punk, with only a hint of hardcore chucked in. Filled with the typical array of power chords, catchy hooks and sing-out-loud choruses, the album packs a hefty punch or the expected.

There’s certainly no failure to live up to the sound that made their name. There aren’t any songs with the particular resonance of ‘My Friends Over You’ from their third album, Sticks and Stones, but six albums in you can’t really expect any band to come up with new classics too easily. Saying that, this 36-minute CD is packed with 12 tracks, with not a single one over four minutes long.

Produced by Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, they come bass heavy with a sort of seal of approval from one of pop-punk’s greatest alumni. Every track is a jab of melodious pop punk, and though none of them stand out hugely, they all have something going for them. Kicking off with ‘Right Where We Left Off’, lead singer Jordan Pundik launches into the mix of songs about girls and friends that has become the staple of previous album.

The loud blasts of ‘Don’t Let Her Pull You Down’ will undoubtedly have future crowds shouting at the stage as the track cycles between huge choruses and pulsing beats from the drums. ‘47’ demonstrates the lyrical standing of the album. Melodrama and tales of love lost and found permeate every track, with the chorus of this one summing up the teenage appeal: “I called 46 times, And you answered on the 47th”. ‘Tangled Up’ and ‘Heartless At Best’ are probably the best songs to be found on the album, checking all the boxes for vocals, guitars, drumming and lyrical content. Loud and fast is what New Found Glory have done best in the past and there’s little change in these departments.

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Russell Peters – Red, White and Brown DVD

Russel Peters - Red, White and Brown

As a general rule, DVDs of stand-up comedy aren’t nearly as funny as the live show. The atmosphere isn’t the same in a living room as it is in a packed out club or venue, be it the Comedy Store in London, or New York’s Madison Square Garden, the latter theatre being the setting for Russell Peters’ new DVD, Red, White and Brown, filmed last February to a full house.

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Ane Brun, London Islington Union Chapel

Ane Brun

February 28th, 2009

Sat in a church as enchanting and perfectly lit as the Union Chapel is only the beginning of what will almost certainly be a spellbinding night of intimate and almost ethereal music.

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Metric – Help I’m Alive

Metric - Help I'm Alive

It seemed like an age ago when the idea of a female indie-styled singer didn’t force a mental image of the Ting Tings’ Katie White. Shudder. Where have the Karen Os and Shirley Mansons disappeared in the modern blur of ‘rock’? Pretenders to the old school include Hayley Williams, whose vocals could be better put to use in radio-friendly pop, and the lesser known but significantly more rock’n’roll, Jemina Pearl of Be Your Own Pet. Oh, and Emily Haines, the lungs behind Metric. … Continue Reading

James Yuill – No Surprise

James Yuill - No Surprise

Synthesizers sorta dominated a huge chunk of last year’s music. MGMT, Kanye West and dozens of RnB records seemed crafted by a sound technician, preened and tweaked to form a mesh between man, machine and instrument. … Continue Reading

Slumdog Millionaire – OST

Slumdog Millionaire OST

On the back of four Golden Globes wins, 11 BAFTA nods and another 10 Oscar nominations, Slumdog Millionaire is far and away going to be one of the biggest films of this year.

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Animal Collective – My Girls

Animal Collective

Like a breath of fresh air (or perhaps more like a gust from a hurricane), Animal Collective re-emerge onto the music scene with their exceptional eighth album, Merriweather Post Pavilion.

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Maria Taylor – ‘Time Lapse Lifeline’

Maria Taylor