Women – Public Strain

Women - Public Strain

Most bands create albums from the small to the large, using songs as component parts to build their long players, often without knowing how these constructs will turn out. Some bands, however, see the bigger picture from the outset. They know what they want to build and they know how each component must be shaped in a particular way to fit their blueprint. Women fall into this latter group and Public Strain, as silly as it sounds, is an album for album lovers.

Taken individually, each song offers only glimpses of what Public Strain is all about. There are a couple of highlights which may show off the album’s qualities better than other tracks but Women haven’t crafted this as an album to dip into briefly now and again – its intent is to wholly envelop you, seeping into your pores gradually like having a long soak in the bath. Each song flows into and compliments the previous one, and throughout the entirety of the album’s run time there is neither a single miss-step nor one second of filler. … Continue Reading

Les Savy Fav – Root For Ruin

Les Savy Fav - Root For Ruin

The future existence of Les Savy Fav has been a hot topic of speculation amongst the fans since the band finally emerged from a self-imposed, two-year hiatus with 2007’s Let’s Stay Friends, which in itself was only the band’s second studio release in a six-year stretch. The same break-up rumours surfaced again during the intervening years between said release and Root For Ruin but once again Tim Harrington and co have returned and surprised the doubters.

And what better way to state your intentions and calm the potential worries of the growing legions of fans with album opener ‘Appetites’? In trademark Les Savy Fav fashion, spiky, effect laden guitars howl across the snappy three and a half minutes, accompanied by an ever present and prominent bass rumble. The song’s message isn’t a subtle one in the stomping punk shout-along chorus – “We still got our appetite! We still got our appetite!” … Continue Reading

The Mynabirds – What We Lose In The Fire, We Gain In The Flood

The Mynabirds - What We Lose In The Fire, We Gain In The Flood

I once bought an album purely on a whim after hearing just 30 seconds of the opening track. That band was Low and the album was Things We Lost in the Fire. The purchase felt like an exciting risk at the time, though when I got home and was able to listen to the album in full, the risk felt totally vindicated and now this CD occupies a special and unique place in my collection. So, when I received The Mynabird’s near namesake debut, What We Lose in the Fire, We Gain in the Flood there was a genuine flutter of excitement in the belly of this reviewer – a feeling not felt for some time. And perhaps the opening (semi) title track would have encouraged an impromptu purchase back in the day but sadly, the first play back of the full album on returning home would have yielded a feeling of mild disappointment. … Continue Reading

The New Pornographers – Together

The New Pornographers - Together

It’s easy to analogise Carl Newman’s role in The New Pornographers. He’s the head chef, constantly needing to come up with an interesting menu using the same incongruous ingredients. He’s the circus master, juggling a chainsaw (Bejar), a flaming torch (Case) and a sharpened axe (Calder) whilst taking care of his own skin, tightrope walking above a perilous drop. In truth, his actual role seems so large that it feels like an analogy in itself – the head lyric and song writer and lead singer and guitarist of a band featuring a dishevelled troubadour, a classy country songstress and an angelically voiced family member. The truly astonishing thing about Newman though, is that he’s managed to take all of these threads and weave them into a successful tapestry, not once, not twice but three times only mis-stepping slightly at the fourth time of asking on 2007’s Challengers. … Continue Reading

Fang Island – Fang Island

Fang Island - Fang Island

A great philosopher called Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier once said ‘When it’s time to party, we will party hard.’ His many worshippers (who generally call him Andrew W.K. for short) attempt, on a daily basis, to live their lives according to this tenet and if there were a cult of Andrew W.K. and its members attained higher states of consciousness and knowledge via the medium of partying, Fang Island would probably be as close to reaching this state as Tom Cruise is to finding the secrets of the Thetans. … Continue Reading

The Besnard Lakes – Are The Roaring Night

The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night

I’ve always wanted to visit Canada. If and when I ever get round to popping over, Besnard Lake in Saskatchewan will be on my itinerary. In my mind’s eye, it’s dominated on one side by craggy mountains whilst on the other, the shimmering sandy beach is canopied by the shadow cover of a lush forest. Children play in the shallows and in the distance sailboats and windsurfers teeter on the edge of the horizon, all overseen by the friendly Loch Bess monster. This picture has grown in my mind since learning The Besnard Lakes took their name from the area and it’s the Montreal band’s atmospheric and epic music which has inspired my own imagination, though Google Images has ruined it all by showing me otherwise. … Continue Reading

The Besnard Lakes – Birmingham Hare and Hounds

The Besnard Lakes

March 30, 2010

I’m not sure the world needs another ‘Wolf’ related band name (I can think of 5 others off the top of my head), and I’m also not sure the world needs another classic rock band. Thankfully the world does need Wolf People because they understand how to make damn fine rock music. In an idle jam on Down’s second album, guitarist Pepper Keenan (yeah I know) yells out “the power of the riff compels you!” and this could well be Wolf People’s catchphrase. … Continue Reading

The Joy Formidable – Birmingham Academy

The Joy Formidable

March 20, 2010

With squinted eyes, it would be quite plausible for someone to mistake tonight’s support band, Baddies, for The Futureheads. With squinted (what is the aural equivalent of squint?) ears it would perhaps be more plausible to reach the exact same conclusion. The foursome’s high octane pop rock certainly shares the toe tapping and the head nodding qualities of said Mackems but despite being extremely polished and confident for a support in a gig this size, there’s something lacking here to elevate the band beyond just being an adequate appetiser to the oncoming main course. … Continue Reading

Future of the Left – Birmingham Academy 3

Future Of The Left

December 1, 2009

I have a bit of a chequered history with seeing Future of the Left. I first saw them in April last year in Manchester at the Roundhouse where because of the venue’s club night, the band were asked to start and finish early (8 to 9) which didn’t go down too well with the Welsh trio, nor the crowd, some of whom missed virtually the whole set. I was due to see them again late last year but the tour was pulled at the last minute due to ‘recording commitments’ and earlier this year, due to some over officious door staff, I missed half their set at Dot to Dot festival. None of these issues are the band’s fault of course but I can’t help but feel that they owe me. Whether it was owed or not, the debt was paid with a little bit of interest tonight. … Continue Reading

Megafaun – Gather, Form and Fly

Megafaun - Gather, Form and Fly

Someone nearby is chopping onions which is causing my tear ducts to prickle, though I suppose this might have been caused by Megafaun’s ‘The Fade’, a song which deals with the tragedy of forgetting the face of a deceased family member (the Cook brother’s Granddad in this case). As a macho Muso’s man, I’m sticking with the onions excuse.

Gather, Form and Fly is perfectly book ended by the welcoming hug of ‘Bella Marie’, a short intro of gently plucked guitar and sweet strings and ‘Tides’, a sparse, hushed lullaby goodbye. In between, Megafaun treat the listener to a tapestry of traditional Americana, centered around folk but doffing the cap to country, blues, jazz, pop and rock. It’s a rich, intriguing and diverse album where radio friendly soft rock like ‘The Fade’ sits comfortably next to the ever metamorphosing, semi instrumental, ‘Impressions of the Past’.

There is a touch of past band mate Justin Vernon in ‘Kaufman’s Ballad’, a harmony drenched, banjo backed, campfire bedtime jam but elsewhere, the Megafaun trio never step on Bon Iver’s toes and I only really mention the name in the hope of bringing extra deserved attention to this album. … Continue Reading