May Album Reviews Roundup
Well, another month has come and gone without us being able to make much of a dent in the pile of unreviewed CDs that populate the Echoes And Dust office, so here goes with our attempt to roundup some of the highs and lows of May:
Back in the summer of 2007 the Nu Rave phenomenon was in full swing and firmly astride that bandwagon was Enter Shikari. Now, two years on, the scene which spawned them has moved on and they’ve been left to pop out that ‘tricky’ second album. So, how have they done? ‘Common Dreads’ is frankly, and you’ll have to excuse the pun here, dreadful. The music is depressingly dated, both in a ‘Nu’ rave sense and just generally and the sixth form earnestness of it all is just a little embarrasing. Vocalist Rou Reynolds seems to have two ‘singing’ settings; ‘shouty’ in which he sounds like every other generic metal vocalist and ‘rappy’ in which he sounds like a substandard Mike Skinner. All I could think of when listening to this was Utah Saints, and at least they were doing with it with tongues planted firmly in cheeks.
Also returning to our turntables this month is Brooklyn, NY’s Grizzly Bear who serve up their third recording in the form of ‘Veckatimest’, a collection of twelve haunting, off beat and intriguing tunes. Live, Grizzly Bear are a truly moving experience, memorably reducing one of the E&D team to the verge of tears when we encountered them at ATP a couple of summers ago, but here this doesn’t quite transfer to record. The result being a slightly elusive listen, beautiful moments but lacking in overall cohesion. It’s probably a grower though, so give it time.
Ever wondered what might have happened if King Crimson had never split up? Anekdoten think they might have the answers. This Swedish band formed in the early 90’s as a Crimson covers band (an ambitious objective in itself) but quickly mutated into recording their own material. Over the years their sound has evolved and ‘Chapters’ spans the arc of their career to date. I’m not generally a fan of prog, but there’s something about this band, the sense of the theatrical and absurd grandeur perhaps, that I rather enjoyed. For fans not just of King Crimson but for all those who love beautifully constructed, high concept songcraft.
Akron/Family have always been deliberately enigmatic, preferring to let their music speak for them and they obviously had plenty to say because that music skittered about all over the place covering a perplexingly vast span of styles. For ‘Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free’ they seem to have settled down a little, whether this is due to losing lead vocalist Ryan Vanderhoof since the last record or them just finding a single voice through which they wish to communicate I don’t know, but this is easily their most coherent record to date. This may disappoint hardcore fans of the band, but certainly won’t harm their prospects of opening themselves up to a wider audience. It’s not to say they’ve transmogrified in to Coldplay over night, the playfulness and spirit of adventure is intact just reigned in and less wilful. A cornucopia of musical styles are still much in evidence, see ‘Gravelly Mountains Of The Moon’ for proof of that, but the record is more focused than previous efforts and the better for it.
Last, but in no way least, is the latest offering from the mighty Warlocks. Bobby Hecksher’s band of hardy adventurers have been mapping out the far reaches of space rock for the best part of a decade now and aren’t about to change direction anytime soon, but then why should they when they do it about as well as anyone around? ‘The Mirror Explodes’ is a hefty slab of downtuned,slow burn, psyche-rock that gazes firmly in the direction of its shoes. Check out the epic 'Frequency Meltdown' for a best-in-class example of what these guys do.