Record Reviews

Record review: Bob Mould – Beauty & Ruin (2014, LP)

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bob mould beauty and ruin

Fans of Hüsker Dü tend to favour either the tracks on which guitarist Bob Mould or drummer Grant Hart sang; the former taking a more brutal approach at the mic and the latter being a more melodic soul. It’s been 26 years since the Hüskers broke up in acrimony and 25 since Mould’s debut solo record, but 2012’s Silver Age saw Mould triumphantly return to the rush of angry alt-rock riffage Hüsker fans loved him most for, and it’s in this vein Beauty & Ruin continues for the 53 year-old. Not that you’d think it after listening to sludgy opener ‘Low Season’; the longest track here at four minutes. With that out of his system, it’s straight into the two and three-minute blasts of rock ferocity, with ‘I Don’t Know You Anymore’ and ‘The War’ being particular stand-outs. ‘Forgiveness’ eases off enough for a mid-album catching of breath, and isn’t unlike some of REM’s earlier work, while ‘Tomorrow Morning’ is Candy Apple Grey-era Hüsker Dü rebooted for the 21st century. It’s refreshing to see and hear a rock musician still doing it better than many bands he inspired, and as Hüsker Dü’s classic Zen Arcade came out 30 years ago this month, maybe it’s time for a re-evaluation of Bob Mould’s standing in the annals of rock. On Beauty & Ruin, he’s a musical force of nature; just like he’s always been. Green Day et. al: this is how it’s done. (Merge)

Record review: George Ezra – Wanted On Voyage (2014, LP)

/ Paul McBride / 1 Comment

george ezra wanted on voyage

Let’s get straight to the point here, because there’s nothing else necessary than a simple, quick comparison to describe the debut album from British singer-songwriter George Ezra. If you’re a fan of Jake Bugg or Ed Sheeran you’re going to love Wanted On Voyage. You’re going to lap these twelve songs up, consider the 21 year-old to have a spiritual, if not a direct musical lineage to the likes of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, and use terms like “old head on young shoulders” when describing his wondrous story-telling-by-guitar abilities. However, if you’re neither a fan of Bugg nor Sheeran; congratulations! Move right along, forget the name George Ezra and sleep soundly with the knowledge your music taste is probably slightly less rubbish than everyone else’s. Most aggravating is the fact that Ezra clearly has a decent voice; huskily in contrast to his baby-faced appearance, but if ever a musician’s song-writing style lets him down, it’s here. Breakthrough single ‘Budapest’ is about as sophisticated as a bowl of goulash (no offence intended, Hungary; goulash is fantastic), and painful low point ‘Stand By Your Gun’ comes off like a catastrophically-executed mix of Culture Club and Talking Heads. So, who’s buying this stuff? God only knows. One thing is for certain: this album sounds like it should be dished out as a give-away in a Sunday broadsheet alongside the “Which yacht?” supplement and the adverts for retirees’ rail holidays. In short, this is housewife guitar-rock at it’s blandest. (Columbia)

For mX

Record review: 360 – Utopia (2014, LP)

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360 utopia

If you believe everything you read on the Internet and most music press, then you either love or hate Matthew James Colwell, a.k.a. 360. The likely truth, to which this reviewer can relate, is that you’re probably one of the silent majority of music fans who simply couldn’t give a fiddler’s fart about the 27 year-old Melbourne rapper’s music or persona, and the only reaction the constant “is he or isn’t he a sell-out/scumbag/self-obsessive” questions bring about is a jaw-cracking yawn. On his third album’s opener ‘Still Rap’, he tries to address the common criticism that his music is too “pop” and that he can’t rap… on a track that is ironically one of the most “pop” here. Lyrically, there’s no real direction throughout; the bulk of the subject matter involving sulky reflections on the price of fame (literally, on ‘Price Of Fame’, featuring Gossling) and getting sober, as on ‘Must Come Down’, ‘Early Warning’ and ‘You And I’; the latter coming off like a bad Temper Trap B-side. Ultimately, there’s very little that stands out, and each song plods along at a similar pace with no real zip or zeal. ‘Uncle 60’ may be the biggest rapper to come out of the Australian scene, barring Iggy Azalea (if she’s still being considered an Aussie), but this latest pop-heavy, rap-light stab at hip hop utopia shows that he could really do with a bit more musical meat if he wants to continue to be a heavyweight contender. (Inertia)

For mX

Record review: Tape/Off – Chipper (2014, LP)

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tape-off-chipper

They say life is a little bit more laid back in Queensland, but the length of time it has taken Brisbane’s Tape/Off to record and release their debut album is surely taking the piss. After years of putting out singles and EPs, the quartet of Nathan Pickels (vocals/guitar), Ben Green (guitar), Cameron Smith (bass) and Branko Cosic (drums) have finally gone and done it, and thankfully it has been worth the wait. While first single ‘Pedestal Fan’ is a typically brutal piece of Tape/Off alt-rock, it isn’t necessarily an all-encompassing indication of what’s to be found on this 11-song effort, as there’s more than a healthy dollop of shoegaze messily slopped all over. Opener ‘Australia’s Most Liveable City’ eases us gently into proceedings with a dazed, meandering stroll through the beauty and banality of living in Brisbane in 2014, before ‘Peggy’s Lookout’ opens up into the heavy sound we know and love Tape/Off for. There’s still a debt owed to Pavement through tracks like ‘Different Order’ and ‘Believe In You’, while fractured New York Dolls-esque highlight ‘Climates’ exemplifies their ramshackle charm. Trying to guess whether each upcoming song will be a cruncher or a softie is like trying to predict whether the school bully will focus his meaty aggression on you on a particular day, but somewhat surprisingly it’s the less brutal tracks that are most memorable, like ‘Escalator’ and downbeat closer ‘Another Year’. It’s this fantastic mix of aggression and restraint that make you want to grab the band by the lapels and – in true school bully fashion – tell them not to leave it so damn long next time. (Sonic Masala)

For Beat Magazine

Record review: Straight Arrows – Rising (2014, LP)

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straight arrows rising

Even on record, Sydney’s Straight Arrows sound like a band you want to party with. Semi-strict devotees of the original wave of ’60s garage-rock they may be, but they’ve also got more than enough primal middle-fingers-to-the-air punk attitude to make sure their second album smells more like beer and sweat than it does of nostalgia.

Not that nostalgia is necessarily a bad thing; it just sounds better when it’s run through the musical meat grinder that is Straight Arrows’ perfectly primitive guitar thrashing, barely discernible vocals and so-lo-fi-they’re-almost-non-existent bass lines.

The breakneck ‘Can’t Stand It’ immediately harks back to the classic garage bands of the ’60s, while the 90-second ‘Rotten Teeth’ is appropriately titled to be the most ‘punk’ song here. Single ‘Petrified’ catches singer and Arrows mainman Owen Penglis in a more measured mood, before the song grinds to a halt, broken and battered by the waves of messy surf guitar spattered all over the final minute.

‘Without Ya’ is an anomaly in that a prominent, driving bass-line features for the first time, with the end result benefiting hugely in what could almost be called a groovy fashion, recalling much more of a West Coast garage vibe than anything else here, but the most pleasant surprise is that there isn’t only reverb-laden garage-rock on Rising, as might be expected. At times the path trails off on tangents with strange or dark undertones, as on the introductory track and ‘Fruit of the Forest’.

This aside, be happy in the knowledge that bands like Straight Arrows – on the whole – don’t exist to take us on long-winded musical journeys into the unknown. They’re here to make us want to jump around like idiots; and thankfully this album more than does the job.

For FasterLouder

Record review: Remi – Raw x Infinity (2014, LP)

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remi album cover

Last year, Melbourne rapper Remi Kolawole dropped the single ‘Sangria’; a blissed-out scorcher of a tune that spoke of the joys of summer, sun and getting sh#tfaced. There’s always a time and a place for songs like that, but the 22 year-old’s lyrics have moved on from those hazy days in the bars of Brunswick, to somewhere where the present isn’t looking quite as rosy. Like a rabid greyhound out of the traps, Remi – backed by Sensible J on drums, production and DJ duties, and Dutch on beats and production – sets off at speed from the start and doesn’t let up, with many a sacrificial rabbit in his sights along the way. He has insisted in interviews he’s not a particularly political rapper, but lines on the title track like “Tony Abbott and the Government / Need to get on the boat to Iraq and sh#t / Take a walk down the Gaza Strip / They’ll either wake up or get blasted then” say something different and show something Australian music needs a lot more of in 2014: guts. There are party tracks too (never fear), and ‘Livin’ might be the best one here; a controlled diatribe against workin’ 9 to 5, while ‘Tyson’ is brutal braggadocio at its best. While this is only Remi’s second album, after 2012’s Regular People Sh#t, it feels like the work of a seasoned pro. This guy is going to do big things. (House of Beige)

For mX

Record review: Lucy Hale – Road Between (2014, LP)

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lucy hale road between

A quick web search tells you everything you don’t want to know about Lucy Hale. She’s a 24 year-old country-pop-singing reality TV ‘star’ and actress from Memphis, Tennessee, whose acting credits include such pinnacles of television and film as Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream and Scream 4. This is her debut album, and while Hale has a decent country voice with twangs in all the right places, there’s nothing else here but an 11-song collection of such sickly formulaic, Shania Twain-lite drivel that will make you want to violently hurl or throw a punch at the cat. The expected themes are all present and correct, from teen angst (‘Nervous Girl’) and useless boyfriends (the banjo-twangin’ ‘Goodbye Gone’) to pseudo-driving ditties aimed at boneheaded truckers (‘From The Backseat’). “There’s nothing wrong with an itty-bitty white lie,” she sings on ‘Love Tonight’, and that’s about as deep as it gets. At this point you realise how little input Hale must have had on her own album, such is the artificial vibe seeping from every note, and while her sole writing credit appears on final track ‘Just Another Song’, by that stage, that’s all it is. It’s a formula that has been proven to work, and it probably will for Hale, but having to listen to this guff is an excruciating experience from start to finish. Until a few days ago I had never heard of Lucy Hale; how I look back on that time with longing. (Universal)

Record review: Wolf Alice – Creature Songs (2014, EP)

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wolf alice creature songs

Questions young bands have to ask themselves number 1186: do we save up all our good songs for a debut album, risking losing momentum and fans, or strike when the iron is hot, put out an EP and potentially lessen the quality of said long-player? English indie-rock quartet Wolf Alice are a band leaning heavily towards the latter approach, this being their second EP of top quality indie-rock in the space of less than twelve months. As their moniker suggests, Wolf Alice’s music is half rough and half gentle, with elements of grunge, rock and shoegaze at the pointy end and subtle indie at the other. This four track effort starts off strongly with the colossal ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’; a mesh of heavily fuzzed guitars and big vocals, before kicking it up another gear with ‘Storms’, a song which isn’t unlike something fellow English rockers Band of Skulls might write. In frontwoman Ellie Rowsell, indie-rock kids might have a new Goddess to worship; her commitment and command of every song being particularly impressive. Third track ‘Heavenly Creatures’ comes as a surprise after two alt-rock numbers; Rowsell’s whispered vocals and ringing harmonies over a simple guitar and bass line provide a cosy cushion for your ears to sink into, and closer ‘We’re Not The Same’ begins in misery before exploding with angst and feedback. It remains to be seen whether Wolf Alice can move past being labelled a ‘hype’ band to something more substantial, but if they keep tunes of this standard coming, the world of rock is theirs for the taking. (Dirty Hit)

Record review: Plague Vendor – Free To Eat (2014, LP)

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plague vendor

California quartet Plague Vendor may come from the same town as Richard Nixon, but they’re anything but conservative. A combination of punk energy and twisted and downbeat lyrics, the band’s debut album is simultaneously arresting and exhausting. Opener and highlight ‘Black Sap Scriptures’ is a dark tale with vaguely mystical pretensions set to a mighty and crunching guitar riff, while second track ‘Breakdance On Broken Glass’ doesn’t let the frenetic pace let off. There is so much of the Dead Kennedys in what is going on here, that fans of the seminal punks will want to check these guys out, if they’re not too busy being angry at the world to do so. It’s always interesting when an album has a song with the same name as the band on it; it’s tempting to wonder whether the track contains the entire group’s musical manifesto. If that’s the case here, then Plague Vendor’s is to beat their instruments to within an inch of their lives while shouting out the letters of their name to a bass-line that’s nasty enough to burn your record collection and blame it on the cat. Elsewhere, ‘Finical Fatalist’ tells the touching tale of frantic singer Brandon Blaine driving his car off a cliff. On ‘Garden Lanterns’, Blaine proclaims he’s “God damn, done it again, found something better than a one-night stand,” revealing himself to be an angry punk with a soft centre. This is high-octane, sweaty and shouty punk that makes you want to work off some calories in an angry, pogo-ing fashion. Not for the faint-hearted. (Epitaph)

Record review: Wagons – Acid Rain and Sugar Cane (2014, LP)

/ Paul McBride / 1 Comment

wagons acid rain and sugar cane

It’s been three years since Wagon’s last album, Rumble, Shake and Tumble, but during what seems at first glance like an extended holiday, Wagons’ main man Henry Wagons became a father and made a solo album comprised entirely of duets.

Recorded in his Mornington Peninsula studio with a horde of vintage equipment and Mick Harvey on production and additional musical duties throughout, this 11-song collection – the band’s sixth – has everything long-term fans will expect to hear, and a few surprises to keep things more than interesting.

Ragged Americana, whisky-soaked lyrics and tales of heartbreak from the Victorian coast to the saloons of Nashville are the order of the day, carried off with the flamboyant gusto and cheeky humour that Wagons has earned a reputation for on the live circuit. Heart-wrenchers ‘Beer Barrel Bar’ and ‘Never Going To Leave’ sit smoothly next to galloping sex-and-booze anthems ‘Search The Streets’ and ‘Chase The Eclipse’, and Brisbane’s entertainment precinct is summed up perfectly on the brilliantly loose ‘Fortitude Valley’ with a slight twist on a classic line – ‘women to the left of me, jokers to the right’.

Recording took place with all six band members in the same room à la Bob Dylan and The Band’s The Basement Tapes, resulting in a live feel that makes sure there’s not a bad track or stale moment at any point. This is an album that is simply a pleasure to listen to, from start to finish.

Record review: Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal (2014, LP)

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parquet courts sunbathing animal

It’s tempting to pin the ‘slacker’ label on New York indie-rock quartet Parquet Courts, given that their most well-known song to date, 2012’s ‘Stoned and Starving’, tells the simple tale of singer Andrew Savage wandering the streets fiending for “Swedish fish, roasted peanuts or liquorice”. To do so, however, would be a disservice, as there is much more to the band. Featured on their second album Light Up Gold, that song introduced the everyday laugh-out-loud ramblings of a young city musician describing his surroundings, and was enough to bag the band slots at both Laneway Festival and Splendour In The Grass this year. One of the great – and simultaneously infuriating – things about Parquet Courts is that it’s not always clear when they’re being serious and when they’re taking the piss. Undoubtedly a fine and witty wordsmith, frontman and lyricist Andrew Savage comes across as part Ivy League stiff, part frantic punk-rock poet; but his energy and commitment make him a believable street storyteller on Sunbathing Animal. Unlike the instantly explosive Light Up Gold, the album begins in more measured fashion with ‘Bodies Made Of’, before setting off at pace with ‘Black & White’ and breaking the momentum down to a slow crawl on ‘Dear Ramona’. Among the remaining full-tilt rockers are ‘Instant Disassembly’, which could easily be the soundtrack to a comedy Western, and ‘Raw Milk’, which adds a hint of blues to finish up. While they’re now opting for a more cautious approach to urban punk than the head-on take of previous work, it’s this progression which keeps Parquet Courts’ particular brand of indie-rock more exciting than most.

Record review: Closure In Moscow – Pink Lemonade (2014, LP)

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osure in moscow pink lemonade

If there’s one genre of music in which it’s okay to get more than a little strange, it’s prog-rock. A style once maligned for being overblown and poser-ish, it’s since been rescued from the musical scrapheap by a troop of contemporary bands; one of the best of those being Melbourne quintet Closure In Moscow. Their second full-length album is an eleven-track collection of bizarre-in-a-good-way rock riffs, weird tangents, off-time rhythms and mystical lyrics that combine to make an album that doesn’t just take you on a journey, it makes you forget how to get home again. The band easily flit between metal, avant-garde, hard rock and even a bit of soul, as they do on just one song; the excellently-named ‘Neoprene Byzantine’. There are some serious musical chops contained within the band, particularly guitarists Mansur Zennelli and Michael Barrett, and singer Christopher de Zinque, whose voice is as versatile as they come. With song names like ‘Dinosaur Boss Battle’, ‘Mauerbauertraurigkeit’ and ‘The Church of the Technochrist’, you can guess the album doesn’t contain your average boy-meets-girl style lyrics, and just trying to guess exactly what is going on in each song is half the fun. Just when you think you’re getting it, they throw in ‘Happy Days’; a rockabilly-tinged number that is about as catchy as these guys are going to get. Finished off top-notch production from Tom Larkin, this is an album that needs to be heard, even if it takes a while to work out what you’re listening to. (Sabretusk)

Record review: Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots (2014, LP)

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damon albarn everyday robots

Damon Albarn has always been an eclectically-minded soul, even if the gulf in public exposure between his most well-known work with Blur and his lesser recognised side projects and collaborations is as big as Britpop circa 1995. From producing Bobby Womack’s last record, to opera and a variety of Clash fantasies channelled through Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad & the Queen, the 46 year-old Englishman has dipped his toe in many a musical puddle since Blur’s 1991 debut. The most obvious absence from his glittering resume has been a solo record, and it’s a gap Everyday Robots fills with aplomb, although anyone hoping for the mock cockney goofiness of Blur’s heyday or the electro-pop of Gorillaz will be disappointed. Instead, this is an album of a more reflective and subtle nature, and one that explores Albarn’s love for African rhythms and Caribbean-flavoured melodies, carried off with the luxury of control and freedom not available to the majority of other recording artists. He begins by railing at the overuse of hand-held devices on the disjointed title track, before becoming entrenched in melancholy on ‘Hostiles’ and ‘Lonely Press Play’; the latter holding just enough of a hint of reggae rhythm to prevent it wallowing too deeply in the mire. ‘Mr. Tembo’ – written for an orphaned elephant he met in Tanzania – sees him enjoying himself in a much lighter fashion, as an infectious ukulele riff combines with Gospel harmonies to make the most playful track here. The seven-minute ‘You & Me’ could be a microcosm for the entire album; a story of regret and paranoia set to apathetic piano lines being uplifted with a steel drum mid-section that allows light to flow in through the gloom of Albarn’s lyrics. Elsewhere, the well-connected singer can’t resist a collaboration or two, as Brian Eno pops up to sing a lullaby-like verse on laid-back closer ‘Heavy Seas Of Love’ and Natasha Khan (Bat For Lashes) provides eerie background vocals on ‘Selfish Giant’. It’s unclear why it took this long for Albarn to make a solo album, especially when he was recently quoted as saying he gave producer Richard Russell 60 songs for the record. In the end it doesn’t matter; this is the sound of a man making an album exactly the way he wants to, even if it does make you think he should have given it a stab a long time ago.

Record review: Jake Bugg – Messed Up Kids (2014, EP)

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jake bugg messed up kids

As if two albums in two years wasn’t enough, mop-topped sensation Jake Bugg is back with a new EP, and a puzzling little release it is. Based around the track ‘Messed Up Kids’, which already featured on the Shangri La album and was released as recently as November, this four song EP has the feel of either a single or a blatant cash-grab; it’s hard to tell which. The three other tracks – ‘A Change In The Air’, ‘Strange Creatures’, and ‘The Odds’ didn’t make it onto Shangri La, and are packaged here as extras or bonus tracks, but they didn’t make it onto the album for a reason. ‘Messed Up Kids’ is a simple and catchy little number, although it’s unfortunate that Bugg’s voice too often makes him sound like something that buzzes around your face and needs to be squashed – pun intended. After that, the quality drops away, and this release reveals itself to be the bag of leftovers it is. ‘A Change In The Air’ is a painful Byrds rip-off that could do with a lyrical re-write and Bugg doesn’t have the character in his voice to effectively pull off the blues number that ‘Strange Creatures’ tries to be. ‘The Odds’ adds a bit of stomp to proceedings to finish up, and while fans of the boy wonder will no doubt gobble this up, this release basically consists of a song that’s already been released and three B-sides that don’t add up to much. (Universal)

Record review: DZ Deathrays – Black Rat (2014, LP)

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dz deathrays black rat

Thrash-pop duo DZ Deathrays have come a long way since their beginnings playing Brisbane house parties. ARIA Award winners in 2012 for their debut Bloodstreams, singer-guitarist Shane Parsons and drummer Simon Ridley have been on a heavy touring schedule across the UK and America, including a recent appearance at SXSW, but they really need this second album to be a killer to keep the DZ thrash train a-rollin’. Luckily, Black Rat is a stone cold killer and then some; building on the hard-riffing, cymbal annihilating, throat shredding sound of their debut, but throwing a few curve balls and new layers into the mix. Choosing the almost dreamy ‘Northern Lights’ as the first single was a bold move for a thrash band known for their sweaty, hair-flinging live shows, but it’s a move that only further enforces their intention to branch out their sound and show a lighter side to their abilities. That’s not to say the majority of the 11 tracks here aren’t going to make you want to rock out with your socks out, as there’s plenty of familiar material for die-hards to get their teeth into. ‘Ocean Exploder’ is probably the hardest track, and is one the band have been playing since supporting The Bronx on their Australian tour last year, and ‘Night Walking’ is as slick as the band have been thus far. Second single ‘Gina Works At Hearts’ is a high point, featuring plenty of fat, nasty riffs and a clean vocal from Parsons, rounding off an album that does just about everything right. (I Oh You/Infectious)