Author: jerobear
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John McCullagh: New Born Cry
We’d expect the popular Press to pretty well go bonkers over this, and for it to figure in “best of” lists at the end of the year. His debut in 2013 was the first on Alan McGee’s 359 Music label, so he’s cool, he sounds Beatlesesque and his full name is John Lennon McCullagh, and…
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Mounties: Thrash Rock Legacy
Two albums of the year are reviewed this week — this one will be one of ours, John McClaughlin will, we suspect, be other people’s. We were expecting little of this, so were very impressed. Mounties are made up of Hawksley Workman and Steve Bays, whose previous band Hot Hot Heat got a bit famous…
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Gallows: Desolation Sounds
We never liked Gallows much. They were a punk band that decided to be the most punk band ever, like Steve Irwin deciding being the Ozziest Australian. The music Press loved front man Frank Carter but now he’s gone, leaving to form an ill-fated venture that was “destined to change music” but disappeared without trace.…
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Emerson Lake and Palmer Emerson: Trilogy
There was a conversation about punk on the Review Corner Facebook page this week and we were praising the DIY ethos of that movement, where people who were frankly not very good could still make music. ELP and Yes were the very bands punk set out to destroy, with their self-indulgent three-day long keyboard solos…
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Copenhagen Piano Quartet: Kuhlau: Piano Quartets 1&2
Unlike Henze (see above) Kuhlau seems to have been more workmanlike in his output, writing cosmopolitan pieces to entertain, and these two piano quartets are major works from the composer’s most productive decade. They’re both easy to listen to and evidence of Kuhlau’s skills as a pianist. Part of the attraction of this CD is…
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Joel Rafael: Baladista
Rafael is the real deal if you want folk: born in 1949, he’s known in the States as an interpreter of Woody Guthrie’s lyrics and music, though despite a long life he’s released only eight albums (two of which were Guthrie: both called Woodyboye: Songs Of Woody Guthrie). Musically: it’s mostly Rafael and his acoustic…
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Young Kato: Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow
Young Kato are the Haircut 100 of the 2010s. For those who don’t remember 80s pop, the Haircuts popped up early in that decade and scored a handful of hits. They released an immaculate pop album that was, as radio stations like to say, the sound of summer. They’re an under-rated band, mainly because while…
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Frogbelly and Symphony: Blue Bright Ow Sleep
Frogbelly and Symphony are one of those bonkers bands that come along from time to time with no idea of genres or niche marketing, and play whatever they want. On this album, there’s the sound of Libertines, a hymn, Swedish indie pop band The Concretes, a Slash-style guitar solo, funk, soul and folk, and more.…
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