February 2011
11 posts
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Armed with an Autoharp, PJ Harvey has made a poignant declaration about the nature of war. Let England Shake, Harvey’s first solo album since 2007’s White Chalk, is a brutal, often difficult and always unflinching look at what terrible things happen to people when nations fight each other.
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake | album reviews | musicOMH
Pete Yorn - Pete Yorn
Ten years after releasing his eponymous debut, musicforthemorningafter, New Jersey’s second or third favourite son, Pete Yorn has brushed the dust off his sessions with Pixies front man Frank Black - which predated 2009’s Back And Fourth - to release the most rock ‘n’ roll album of his career. And perhaps it’s appropriate that five albums in, he’s felt the...
John Vanderslice - White Wilderness
White Wilderness marks a musical departure for singer-songwriter John Vanderslice. Gone are the synths and electronic beats on which he’s long relied; in their place, Vanderslice enlists the help of Minna Choi and her Magik Magik Orchestra, who provide stunning chamber-pop arrangements that complement his songwriting beautifully without ever overpowering it.
John Vanderslice - White...
Duke Garwood - Dreamboatsafari
London’s Duke Garwood is apparently not content to merely fall in line with the current pack of blues revivalists, nor does he quite comfortably fit in amongst his singer-songwriter peers. Certainly, Garwood is rooted in the American blues tradition, but it often seems as though he’s strained it through the tail of his shirt somewhere in the swamps of London, resulting in a mason jar...
Social Distortion - Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes
After a six-year hiatus, Social Distortion are back with Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes, sounding perhaps a bit older and wiser, but mostly treading the same musical territory they always have. Mike Ness and company may have aged over the years, but aside from Ness’s baritone picking up a slightly raspy malaise, it seems impossible that more than 20 years have passed since their...
Pearl Jam - Live On Ten Legs
Two decades into their career, Pearl Jam have managed to outlast their “grunge” peers, never once showing signs of stopping for breath. Though the musical movement they helped spark has long since become a punch line or a dog-eared footnote in the history of Generation X, Eddie Vedder and company have survived it, cementing themselves as mainstays of rock ‘n’ roll.
Pearl...
The Phoenix Foundation - Buffalo
New Zealand indie outfit The Phoenix Foundation have been around since the late ’90s, but Buffalo, their fourth full-length and first offering for UK-based Memphis Industries, has the feel of a well-conceived and brilliantly incubated debut. The Wellington six-piece aren’t breaking new ground - far from it, in fact - but they do what they do with the sort of offhand vigour that makes...
Top 50 blurb: The National - High Violet
The National’s High Violet is nothing short of a masterpiece. High praise, indeed, but now, months after its release, High Violet has proven itself to be the sort of album that sticks with you, that goes beyond the mere marriage of music and lyrics to something far more mythical. It gets under your skin, brooding and roiling in the dark, and shining a light on the basest and barest parts...
Top 50 blurb: Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Arcade Fire have a record of navigating potentially ruinous and conceptual territory with unmatched deftness on a grand scale. Their debut, Funeral, approached themes of death with stunning emotional vigour, while the oft-bemoaned Neon Bible found Win Butler and company examining celebrity, war and religion. So, The Suburbs may seem like a step back on the Butler scale of conceptual grandiosity....
Top 50 blurb: LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
When This Is Happening was released in May - after being leaked online for voracious consumption - it wasn’t just an album; it was an event. James Murphy has consistently proven himself a major trendsetter in popular dance music, and This Is Happening finds him in top form. There was also Murphy’s insistence that it would be the final LCD Soundsystem album, and as such, it was imbued...
Top 50 blurb: Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Halcyon Digest is a difficult album to discuss, and at times, it’s a difficult listen. But the genius of Deerhunter’s third album is that it never quite comes out and says what it’s after. Bradford Cox is obviously a devoted student of classic Motown, but he’s also deeply indebted to My Bloody Valentine and Echo & The Bunnymen. And the juxtaposition of Cox’s...
