Ok, those of you who have been paying attention will realise that I am a little behind on writing these reviews. Believe me this is not through not wanting to write, I just try and do too much at once. Anyway with all that in the past I shall try and get the ball rolling again (seeing as I have all the CDs) starting with British Sea Power.
Hopefully a band that are more recognised than Tom Baxter from last week, British Sea Power could almost be called respectable for the way that they have reached this third album without troubling the charts too much, whilst still being held with a high regard in the musical community. Currently a four-piece following the departure of Eamon Hamilton to Brakes, British Sea Power are definitely a band who have a tendency to live on the side of obscurity by playing tiny venues and carrying around branches. Despite this, the sound displayed in their early material such as 'Carrion' and 'Remember Me' screams out for fans of real tuneful music to buy them, but that success has yet to find them.
British Sea Power are one of those bands who you often hear mentioned on the indie grapevine as one that you should go and see live, and a few years back at that wonderful festival in Bramham I chose to do just that. In amongst all the foliage I found a band who were eager to perform and impress but at the same time doing all this with a smile on their faces. Their music, characterised by a full sound with striking guitar riffs would have been hard not to be impressed by. Shockingly since that day 'Do You Like Rock Music?' is the first of their material I have actually got my hands on, so when it came to choosing an album for this week, it was an easy choice to make.
The title of this album is particularly intriguing as regardless of whether you answer yes or no I'm not sure how you would know whether to buy the album or not. At the risk of being shot down, I would very much describe this album as one of two halves. From tracks one to six we have what I would have hoped for as the next steps for British Sea Power, continuing where they left off but also daring to write some striking songs that are musically brilliant and also completely unexpected. 'No Lucifer' is one song that falls into the unexpected category where singing what almost sounds like a love song to the devil combined with a chant enjoyed by many Burberry wearing football fans somehow ends up as the best song on the album. Sadly after track six the album just fades out with the brief exception of 'Atom'. 'A Trip Out' in particular is very lyrically poor and almost seems to just be included to make numbers up. All of this aside, existing Sea Power fans will no doubt enjoy the album if only for tracks such as 'Waving Flags' and the lengthy but enjoyable 'Lights Out For Darker Skies' and although this is not their best effort it is sure to keep them going towards further albums in the future.
The final question lies with how does it compare to 'Skybound' last week. Well as much as I'd like to love it simply for 'No Lucifer', it is by no means as complete an album as 'Skybound' and so, for now, 'Do You Like Rock Music?' goes to the bottom of the pile.
Friday 7 March 2008
Wednesday 16 January 2008
Week 1 - 'Skybound' by Tom Baxter
So here it is, the first of the 52. Each week I'm going to try and cover the same things, namely who the artist is, why I chose this album and then a general review of what the music is like. I'll also look to see how it fits in with others from across the year by attempting to rank it amongst all others I have heard - how long that part lasts will remain to be seen!
The name Tom Baxter is not really one that would be synonymous with Radio 1 listeners or in fact listeners of any radio station that I can think of. He is an male solo artist by trade and I am led to believe he originates from our (sometimes) glorious capital city of London. From what I can tell from the album's booklet, to call him a solo artist is in fact a bit of lie. Inside you find photos and messages that give somewhat of a family feel including the whole band, producer and manager. There's even a love message from Tom to his (male) violinist giving the feeling that a lot of emotion has gone into this album. Of course how much of this is real and how much is a cunning marketing ploy remains to be seen, I hope it is the former.
So why 'Skybound'? I have to admit, for this particular week my options were limited to... well... this album. Apparently the music industry thinks that no-one actually buys cds at this time of the year. However I may have been drawn to it anyway. From the limited information I found about Tom (mainly from favourite site www.last.fm) I found similarities with some artists I already listen to such as Ed Harcourt and so it was chosen.
The most striking thing about the album is its good use of acoustic music throughout. So often these days do bands do the odd acoustic track to add a bit of variety but often that just boils down to an electro-acoustic guitar being brought out instead of the usual stratocaster. Here acoustic music is done properly creating an atmosphere not found in many current releases. The vocals on the record are strong throughout and this is definately Tom's strong point. He sounds mature beyond the years that he appears to have seen, indeed this debut record could easily be his fifth, such is the quality of the recording. If fault has to be found at some point it should be said that some of the songs feel overly long. Indeed this album, only 10 tracks long, lasts four minutes short of an hour making this album hardly one you can listen to for quick blast on your generic white mp3 player. Stand out tracks are 'Miracle', the title track as well as the opener 'A Night Like This'.
How does it compare to the rest of this years releases? Well I think that doesn't really need saying yet but it is a strong release to say the least. The fact that Jem said it was the best record I'd bought in a long time shows that it definitely has some appeal to a certain section of the population. I'm not sure I'd agree its the best I've bought but if he were to support someone like Damien Rice on tour, 'Skybound' would probably start flying off the shelves. So here's an idea to leave you with, if you're really stuck on Valentines Eve and its a toss up between chocolates and 'Skybound', go for the latter and your lass will almost certainly not regret your choice.
The name Tom Baxter is not really one that would be synonymous with Radio 1 listeners or in fact listeners of any radio station that I can think of. He is an male solo artist by trade and I am led to believe he originates from our (sometimes) glorious capital city of London. From what I can tell from the album's booklet, to call him a solo artist is in fact a bit of lie. Inside you find photos and messages that give somewhat of a family feel including the whole band, producer and manager. There's even a love message from Tom to his (male) violinist giving the feeling that a lot of emotion has gone into this album. Of course how much of this is real and how much is a cunning marketing ploy remains to be seen, I hope it is the former.
So why 'Skybound'? I have to admit, for this particular week my options were limited to... well... this album. Apparently the music industry thinks that no-one actually buys cds at this time of the year. However I may have been drawn to it anyway. From the limited information I found about Tom (mainly from favourite site www.last.fm) I found similarities with some artists I already listen to such as Ed Harcourt and so it was chosen.
The most striking thing about the album is its good use of acoustic music throughout. So often these days do bands do the odd acoustic track to add a bit of variety but often that just boils down to an electro-acoustic guitar being brought out instead of the usual stratocaster. Here acoustic music is done properly creating an atmosphere not found in many current releases. The vocals on the record are strong throughout and this is definately Tom's strong point. He sounds mature beyond the years that he appears to have seen, indeed this debut record could easily be his fifth, such is the quality of the recording. If fault has to be found at some point it should be said that some of the songs feel overly long. Indeed this album, only 10 tracks long, lasts four minutes short of an hour making this album hardly one you can listen to for quick blast on your generic white mp3 player. Stand out tracks are 'Miracle', the title track as well as the opener 'A Night Like This'.
How does it compare to the rest of this years releases? Well I think that doesn't really need saying yet but it is a strong release to say the least. The fact that Jem said it was the best record I'd bought in a long time shows that it definitely has some appeal to a certain section of the population. I'm not sure I'd agree its the best I've bought but if he were to support someone like Damien Rice on tour, 'Skybound' would probably start flying off the shelves. So here's an idea to leave you with, if you're really stuck on Valentines Eve and its a toss up between chocolates and 'Skybound', go for the latter and your lass will almost certainly not regret your choice.
Sunday 6 January 2008
Week 0 - One Musical Idea
Last week, just before New Year I had an idea. I was thinking about the music from the last year (undoubtedly brought upon by Lee's notes) and I was struggling to remember what my musical highlights were, so this is what I am going to do about it. For every week of 2008 I intend to buy (not download!) an album released in that week, so by the end I will hopefully have seen the best of what the music industry has to offer this year. Inevitably I will buy some written by artists of which I have never heard, and probably will come across some that I buy that I do not like but I hope that this musical journey will be rewarding nonetheless.
So what is there to look forward to? New albums by bands such as The Subways and Los Campesinos! first spring to mind as well as offerings by The Futureheads and maybe even Franz or the Arctic Monkeys. As for the first few weeks I've pencilled in British Sea Power but also an album by Tom Baxter who I only came across in thinking about this project but I find (through Last.fm) may be similar to other artists I've bought before.
From what I can remember of last year the outstanding album was The Cribs' third offering. It rose above other challengers such as the Monkey's second and new ones from The Hives and Ash and while the Klaxons debut was an impressive musical feat, their failure to actually make a noise that was actually in tune took the edge off all but about three songs. How any of these will compare to any of the 2008 releases remains to be seen and that is what I hope to find out over the next 52 weeks.
So what is there to look forward to? New albums by bands such as The Subways and Los Campesinos! first spring to mind as well as offerings by The Futureheads and maybe even Franz or the Arctic Monkeys. As for the first few weeks I've pencilled in British Sea Power but also an album by Tom Baxter who I only came across in thinking about this project but I find (through Last.fm) may be similar to other artists I've bought before.
From what I can remember of last year the outstanding album was The Cribs' third offering. It rose above other challengers such as the Monkey's second and new ones from The Hives and Ash and while the Klaxons debut was an impressive musical feat, their failure to actually make a noise that was actually in tune took the edge off all but about three songs. How any of these will compare to any of the 2008 releases remains to be seen and that is what I hope to find out over the next 52 weeks.
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