Posts tagged Review
Album Review Shorts: Banquets – Top Button, Bottom Shelf
Oct 16th
Short & sweet album reviews that never miss the point…
Banquets – Top Button, Bottom Shelf
RockOSaurus Says…
Barely clocking in at 30 mins in length, this the ‘full’ debut LP from New Jerseys latest laureats. Akin to Motion City Soundtrack and the Gaslight Anthem of old, they play with energetic punky guitars bursting with hooks and a real focus on vocal excellence. Following a muscular pop-punk formula their catchy power chords riffs are both accessible and cut with a raw energy which flows like wildfire through this cracking little album. Melody explodes from every perceivable angle and the uptempo racing riffs rarely relent. The sheened poppy vocals are stacked with big chorus harmonies, rapidfire wordplay, gang vocals and more ooh ooh’s than the Weezer back catalogue. As this album races along, it’s very difficult to fault for it’s determination to fit as much pop power as possible into it’s short lifespan. A very impressive debut from a band clearly destined for bigger things!
9
Album Reviews: The Answer – Revival
Oct 13th
After almost two years on tour with Ac/Dc it was only inevitable the return of The Answer was going to be special!
The Answer – Revival
RockOSaurus Says:
Revival. It’s a pretty accurate title as it’s sparked life back into the stalled rise of Northern Irelands classic rock sons, The Answer! Right from the word go this LP has the blues flooding through it’s veins, showing it’s vinyl crackled charms and quickly baring it’s snarling teeth! The simple blues riff is totally revitalised here with brilliant production effortlessly toeing the line between old school style and new school power!
Song writing is incredibly tight with fuller and more dynamic layered sounds from staple blues weapons, the harmonica and psychedelic organs on top of their Les Paul Standard attack . The overly Americanised lyrics grate somewhat if you want to be pedantic,, but the booming chorus melodies are catchy enough to wash away these critiques.
This is a start to finish classic rock bruiser with hook heavy melodies, traditional blues riffs, blistering guitar solos and superb vocals from Cormac Neeson’s stunning set of pipes. Trouble drips with retro flair, Use Me cranks the amps, female backing vocals bring a new slant on Nowhere Freeway, while Caught In The Riverbed fires fretboard flares at will and New Day Rising‘s driven by of the best tremolo picked riffs this side of Thunderstruck!
Their time on tour with Ac/Dc has obviously rubbed off in abundance, almost matching the biggest rockers in the world for both raw power and total addictiveness! Revival is a fantastic return to form, one no rock lover should be without!
DoesItRock Overall Score: 9/10
Listen to The Answer – Revival now on Spotify!
Album Review Shorts: Bomb The Music Industry! – Vacation
Oct 10th
Short & sweet album reviews that never miss the point…
Bomb The Music Industry! – Vacation
RockOSaurus Says…
What a difference an album makes. Always known for their quirks and DIY ethics, this blows all their previous records out of the water with the change of direction into a indie rock land overdriven with pop melodies and clean vocals. Taking their foot of the pedal slightly and laying back somewhat, their tunes really find their feet and lodge themselves in your head. Ability to comprehend the vocals is a big win win, and with more emphasis on melody over speed makes this an incredibly enjoyable album. They still sail way out into the eclectic ocean mixing up tempo’s, synthy breaks, jagged punk guitar led numbers (Vocal Coach), lyrically potent acoustic strummers (Can’t Complain), Noise Rock (Savers) and more BTMI! trad tunes Everybody That You Love given a loving polish and pop makeover, Never to be second guessed this is an ever twisting album of wildly varied brilliance.
8
Album Review Shorts: Maybeshewill – I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone
Oct 6th
Short & sweet album reviews that never miss the point…
Maybeshewill – I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone
RockOSaurus Says…
Instrumental post-rock bands fall into one of two categories, mostly bland or rarely brilliant. Thankfully this Leeds group left me stunned with their classically backed rock power. The lack of vocals is rewarding as their violin melodies epitomise the word epic. When this is twinned with idyllic/all out assault dynamics, the storming guitars, clattering drums and sweeping keyboards make for truly stunning results. The softer butterfly flutter moments are starkly beautiful and sparse, plus they inevitably become heaving behemoths as they wind up into cataclysmic sound eruptions. An awe inspiring collection of towering feel good harmonies and superb songwriting. A triumph of post rock glory!! It’s rock Jim, but not as we know it!
8.5
Album Review Shorts: Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
Oct 3rd
Short & sweet album reviews that never miss the point…
Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
RockOSaurus Says…
A supposed concept album which triumphs musically more than lyrically. The concept seems only to be apparent to reviewers studying the lyrics and making sense of this 2 hour long exhilarating ride of punk energy. With the jagged edges of their hardcore guitars smoothed over this is a greatly accessible record which despite it’s length, transfixes your brain through bounding riffing, strangely addictive growled vocals and an endless supply of melody. Plenty of cracking tunes scattered throughout the track list such as the frenetic assault of Queen of Hearts, the infectious melody of Turn The Season and the vocally intense Ship of Fools. Put simply, David Comes To Life is a consistent barrage of guitar riffs which rarely deviates. But when this staple diet is so addictive, nothing else seems to matter.
9
Album Review Shorts
Oct 1st
As I end up checkiing out a great deal more new music than all the other writers at DiR.net put together, it has been suggested that I put this to good use and write up some short style reviews of what I have been listening to. So finally, I have decided to go ahead with this mini project of writing Album Review Shorts..
Now with time being the premium that it is, this style of short and enthusiaic opinionated outpourings suits perfectly, i mean most people only ever read a reviews score anyways. This way there is less distance to scroll to find those hallowed ratings!
With anticipation brewing I hereby commence project Album Review Shorts.
Expect lots of reviews to follow shortly…of course!
Album Review: Heaven’s Basement – Unbreakable EP
Jul 21st
New studio E.P. from the Heaven’s Basement boys, led by new vocalist Aaron Buchanan.
Heavens Basement – Unbreakable E.P.
RockOSaurus Says:
A turbulent ride it has been, but finally Heaven’s Basement have put voice, guitars and drums to tape and have recorded a large part of their live set list, perfected over the last few years. This is easily their most accomplished and varied album to date, displaying both the raw rock power and melodic prowess throughout each jubilant fist pumping anthem.
Title track and album opener Unbreakable is a fury filled statement of intent as it unleashes a barrage of expertly wound guitars pummelling their way through many euphoric all out attack crescendo’s. The tempo, relentless and the driving bass/drum assault is unstoppable. Mixed in with some good clean vocals, angst fueled screams and a big chorus chant, an early highlight. Paranoia screams exactly that. A dirty scuzz rocker with wickedly pointed vocals from guitarist Sid. It’s the double combo of the deep and fuzzy power chords interspersed with buzzing harmonics that gives this tune its addictive bite and snarl.
This 7 track EP has very little in the way of filler with each track providing something different to enjoy. Whether it’s the funked up off kiltered blues riff on Close Encounters or the soft/loud/louder dynamics of shout-a-long pop rocker The Last Goodbye this is a mixed up bag of hard rock unlikely to be far from the repeat button. However vocals are often to be found too low down in the mix, easily becoming dwarfed by the mammoth music engine room. A difficult balancing act with some fine tuning required.
Where they have really thrown caution to the wind is on the new boundary crossing ballad Let Me Out! This superbly crafted song shines brightest as a huge step forward in their sound. It’s dark and sparse bluesy licks are restrained and purposefully beautiful which only increase the impact of the return of the loud thumping guitars for the rousing chorus line. The solo throws wailing bends like a high mountain pass and screams emotion through Sid’s six overdriven strings almost as much as Aarons hearty howls.
There is something very retro about the album closer Leeches. A bouncy riff machine gun fires off hooks at breakneck speed somewhat reminiscent of their founder band Roadstar. Of course HB have dresses it up in darker clothing and upped the throat shredding vocal shrills, but long term fans and classic rockers a like will find much to love about this rampaging closer!
Unbreakable is their just reward from relentless touring and have produced a cracking record of massive melodies, heroic guitars and kick-ass attitude! Never ones to throw in the towel, Heaven’s Basement will now surely realise the potential, obliterating their rock underground shackles once and for all!
Heaven’s Basement are playing High Voltage Festival this Sunday 24th July in Victoria Park.
RockOSaurus: 8.5/10
DoesItRock Overall Score: 8.5/10
Listen to Heaven’s Basement – Unbreakable now on Spotify!
Buy Unbreakable E.P. at the iTunes store:
Album Review: Cage the Elephant – Thank You Happy Birthday
Apr 10th
Over two years on since their début, what new tricks have Cage the Elephant got in store for listeners?
Cage the Elephant – Thank You Happy Birthday
RockOSaurus Says:
Cage The Elephant have managed something most people struggle with their entire musical careers…progression! Within their new found angular post-pixies sound are plenty of cracking tunes such as the chest pounding Aberdeen with buckets of feedback fuzz and chaotic drumming.
Long gone is their restrained blues-by-numbers middle of the road rock which had a couple of memorable moments. In its place are off kilter guitars and urgent indie rock yelped and lashed through their edge teetering vocals and guitars. Their incessant drive for uptempo melodies are perfectly showcased on 2024 with its ramping up riff taking off in spectacular fashion.
They are not scared of poking fun at their fans either “Get The Right Haircut” proclaims Matt Shultz on Indy Kidz (whether that’s a wise move, only time will tell.) His vocals are a great deal more impressive that their debut. Standing alone his range of belting chorus’s and exasperated yelps are a weapon of considerable force..
They drop the baton however with some good old fashioned balladry. Their acoustic exploits on Rubber Ball fall very short and disrupt what’s was a rich vein of top notch tunes.
There are plenty of other highlights strewn throughout the track list including the poppy Shake Me Down and the all out punk assaults of Sabertooth Tiger and the riff roller coaster that is Japanese Buffalo.
A cracking sophomore album packed with equally as many thrills and surprises as great tunes!!
Mr Flowers Says:
Thank You Happy Birthday exhibits a bit of a departure from some of the Blues rock influences from Cage the Elephant’s self-titled début. Always Something for instance kicks off the album with a drum machine and screams before being overlayed with an off kilter drum beat. Indeed, the guitars are used sparsely, with the drums forming the backbone for the song. It’s a divergance for Cage The Elephant, but not necessarily a bad thing.
Instead of the Blues is a strong Pixies flavour about a lot of the songs; that almost trademark slow-fast mechanic is used on Aberdeen (which draws from Where Is Your Mind a fair bit), Shake Me Down and Around My Head for example. It generally works out pretty well for them – Frank Black should be proud.
Continuing the homages, 2024 draws from Daniel Johnston for a punk song with a tenderly melodic chorus. That Johnston impression returns on the lullaby-like Rubber Ball, although this one doesn’t work nearly as well – missing the aggressive energy we normally expect from Cage The Elephant. In fact, where the album screws up is on the slower songs; the ballady Right Before My Eyes and the poorly executed foray into Modest Mouse territory on the final song, Flow, generally fall flat.
Interspersed are some psychotic, schizophrenic songs like Indy Kidz, where S chultz indulges in screams and long Sonic Youth-style progressive noise and feedback (and fails); and Sell Yourself and Sabretooth Tiger, punkier, grungy songs which maintain the deranged feeling with bum notes and some angry rock outs (and does a little better). So it’s a little hit and miss, but given all of that you have an album that might not be particularly original but can at least draw from some solid influences to give it a fair share of good songs to join the band’s already strong repertoire.
RockOSaurus: 8/10
MrFlowers: 7/10
DoesItRock Overall Score: 7.5/10
Listen to Cage The Elephant – Thank You Happy Birthday now on Spotify!
Album Review: Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
Mar 29th
Swedish pop vocalist Lykke Li returns with her sophomore effort after her well received 2008 debut:
Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
RockOSaurus Says:
I’m hoping the trait of female pop singers turning to the dark side is only a brief one, as Lykke Li has also caught the gloomsday bug. Desolation and angst runs rife thoughout each song which evoke images of despair and dread. Her vocals are eerie and often strangely unsettling as she cuts lyrics such as “I’m a Prostitute/ You’re gonna Get Some” with true desperation and dispondency over a clattering drum track.
Other choice moments of utter hopeless refrain include “The higher that I climb, The deeper that I fall down” leading a spectral whale choir on Love Out Of Lust and I need look further than the titles of Unrequited Love and Sadness Is A Blessing.
There are some significant pop melodies which try to give the album the shot in the arm It needs to save it from darkness. But despite the soaring chorus of Jerome and the psychadelic fanfare of Youth Knows No Pain, this album seals a one way ticket to depression.
Lykke Li’s scars are out on display here for all to see. All I can hope is that by the time the suporting album tour wraps up, she has sung her last Wounded Rhyme.
Mr Flowers Says:
Not content with following up Youth Novels with more of the same, Wounded Rhymes sees Lykke Li in some ways expanding her sound while in some places moving away from some of her more poppy tendencies for a more generous helping of moodier, slowed down numbers.
One of the bigger tunes on the album is Youth Knows No Pain, a Bluesy song that incorporates bongos and organs to create a pop song from out of the 60s that also allows Lykke to project her voice in ways she might not have been able to before. The musical progression is carried on by I Follow Rivers, Get Some, Rich Kid Blues - who all share some excellently rhythmic drumming and sing along choruses. Yet the more expansive songs are countered by a fair few slower ones which bring the whole jig down a few rungs, such as the country track Unrequited Love, I Know Places, and Silent My Song.
Vocally, Lykke is much more confident but we miss some of her fragile and sweet moments from Youth Novels. It’s difficult to point to a bad song on the record, maybe there aren’t any, but with a lower pop song to sad-song ratio than her début, this latest effort is somewhat more of a struggle for those of us who aren’t sophisticated, contemplative (ever-so slightly sombre) women.
RockOSaurus: 5/10
MrFlowers: 6/10
DoesItRock Overall Score: 5.5/10
Listen to Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes now on Spotify!
Album Review: Beady Eye – Different Gear, Still Speeding
Mar 19th
Liam Gallagher returns with the debut album from his new project, Beady Eye.
Beady Eye – Different Gear, Still Speeding
RockOSaurus Says:
Far from being the Oasis: the sequel, Beady Eye (or Oasis minus Noel) have relished being away from Oasis merry-go-round of non-captivating releases. Coming out with all guns blazing, bursting with optimism and rousing radio rock anthems.
Liam’s vocals are hard to distance from his former band, but these songs bound along with a new found spring in their step. His snarling elongated syllables have real bite and vigor on feel good, up-tempo tunes such as album opener Four Letter Word and Standing On The Edge Of The Noise. What with the jovial honky tonk piano wielding Bring The Light and the light feeling of For Anyone, Beady Eye have clearly lightened up and are having fun once again.
Sadly the latter portion of Still Speeding Different Gear has very little of standout quality. Thankfully there is enough decent tunes in it’s outward 9 such as the addictive single Roller (despite its lack of melodies) and the “influences on sleeve” tribute to the Beatles & Stones. In fact they are less on their sleeves and more on one of those gigantic TV’s circling Piccadilly circus.
The success of this album lies in re-invigorating 60′s guitar pop and is some cases, blatantly copying it! Exhibit A: Three Ring Circus/Getting Better (the Beatles); Exhibit B: Beatles & Stones/My Generation (The Who).
With a whole raft of good tunes and a return to some more carefree, less pressured days, this album can only be described as a success.
Mr Flowers Says:
You might fear the worst from the first album from either of the Brothers Gallagher since Oasis’ breakup but there are times during Different Gear, Still Speeding where, against accepted wisdom, you might wonder if Liam might have been the real musical tour-de-force in his old band.
That’s all hogwash, of course, but with vocals in good form and those falling horns that greet you before leading you into the rocking verses of Four Letter Word, it does seem at times closer to the Oasis of old then Oasis themselves ever did in their final years. Perhaps part of the reason for that are those old influences that heavily influenced Oasis are back featuring probably more prominently than ever – hell, if you cut open The Roller I’m sure you’re going to find some All You Need Is Love DNA in there.
There’s a bit of a swagger in Wind Up Dream with it’s harmonica and balling bassline, and Bring The Light has a classic Blues riffs played on a piano with the always welcome gospel singers providing the odd bit of backing – all very nice. The cracks don’t really start showing until things slow down for the first time on the album’s ballad, Kill For A Dream. We can’t really fault Liam’s ear for a good melody or a decent rock song, but where he falls down is the lyrics. While remembering previous lyrically desolate Liam efforts like Little James (off of Standing on the Shoulders of Giants), we lucky folks get treated to new pearls of rhyming couplets like, “I’m here if you wanna call/Staring at the spot on the wall,” “A looking glass hard thrown at the wall/You don’t see me but I see it all,” and who can forget, “Well here’s my glass and here’s one for you/’Cause these dark glasses means something to do”. Oh man! Deep stuff.
So that pretty much dispels that Liam as musical-genius theory, especially with the backend of the album dotted with meandering efforts that don’t go anywhere like Wigwam and The Morning Song, and then there’s the irritating The Beat Goes On, which finds Liam in an introspective mood as he sings about the arduous life of being an International Rock Star. But, despite all that, you can pretty much forgive the lyrical lows of the album given by the fact that Different Gear is actually a generally good effort with some decent tunes on it – something for Noel to think about, lest he wants to be shown up by the band he left.
RockOSaurus: 7/10
MrFlowers: 7/10
DoesItRock Overall Score: 7/10
Listen to Beady Eye – Different Gear, Still Speeding now on Spotify!
