April Album Reviews Roundup
As we are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up to date doing individual reviews of all the albums we want to cover, we’ve decided the way forwards is to do a monthly round up of the albums that we liked but for one reason or another we haven’t written about on a one on one basis.
April saw some high profile and, in some cases, long awaited releases. Probably first among them, Bat For Lashes returned with the follow up to one of 2006’s big success stories ‘Fur And Gold’. ‘Two Suns’ (06 April On EMI) represents a more mature aspect to Natasha Khan’s vision, a more ambitious ‘concept’ album revolving around Khan’s musical persona and alter-ego Pearl, a narcissistic, self destructive blond. The album is full of high concept and stunning beauty, the song writing several levels beyond that of her debut.
Also back after a long hiatus were Manchester’s arch indie merchants, Doves. ‘Kingdom Of Rust’ (06 April On EMI) comes a full four years after ‘Some Cities’ proved a massive hit for them, and in between times the band have experienced some desperate lows, Jimi Goodwin lost both parents, and mighty highs, children have been born in to the band, and this is reflected in the scope of the album. The music is typically Doves, downbeat but shot through with hope and beauty. There is a fair share of epic stompers and as with all Doves albums to date, the great tracks; ‘Jetstream’ , ‘Kingdom Of Rust’, ‘Birds Flew Backwards’, are truly magnificent, but there is also a number of tracks that just fade in to the background all to easily.
Less high profile than those two, but no less anticipated here in the E&D office was the fourth offering from Toronto’s Great Lake Swimmers, 'Lost Channels' (06 April on Nettwerk). Sadly, it didn’t quite live up to the anticipation. Not to say that it was a poor album, it certainly has some lovely moments; ‘River’s Edge’ and ‘Everything Is Moving So Fast’ stand out, but overall it lacks the emotional punch that ‘Ongiara’ carried. They’ve gone for a jollier, more upbeat sound on many of the tracks, and whilst credit must go to them for trying something different, it somehow doesn’t seem to work for them.
Whilst we’re dwelling on little disappointments, that brings us nicely on to ‘Tentacles’ (06 April on Touch & Go) by Crystal Antlers. I guess the bar was extremely high after the excitement generated by their debut EP and their coruscating live performances, but the album falls short of both of these. It feels somehow sanitized, as if someone’s told them that if they want to make it big they need to tone it down a little. Unfortunate.
Also falling in to the ‘slight let down’ category was the new offering from Germany’s Long Distance Calling. ‘Satellite Bay’ was one of our surprise finds of 2007, beautiful shimmering post rock of the highest order, but ‘Avoid The Light’ (27 April on Superball) falls in to the trap of trying to provide more of the same but never lives up to its predecessor and as a consequence seems predictable and pedestrian. Post rock has moved on in the last couple of years but it appears LDC haven’t.
Finally, ‘My Maudlin Career’ (20 April on 4AD) by Camera Obscura. This is a band that have been gamely chugging about the circuit for well over 10 years, three albums and any number of singles and EP’s without anything much in the way of reward, but it’s just possible that with ‘My Maudlin Career’ they might finally have struck gold. A collection of beautifully produced, heavily sixties influenced, lush pop songs. It’s got ‘breakthrough’ written all over it.