Review Corner

Author: jerobear

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    Ant Law: Zero Sum World

    We’ve had this a few weeks, but it’s proved difficult to review: on one level it’s fairly mainstream, relaxed jazz, on the other we feel Ant Law’s prodigious talent needs more to be said. It’s partly his fault: despite the obviously talents of all the players (three of whom featured on Law’s debut Entanglement), it’s…

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    Lucia Micallef: Bach, Keyboard Concertos

    Just as the opera Pomona (elsewhere) is a good way to ease into that genre, this album is a good introduction to classical music itself, though for a different reason: it’s top quality. If you feel you want to buy a classical CD, this is an excellent first investment (after which, Peter Sheppard Skaerved’s Beethoven…

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    Reinhard Keiser: Pomona

    If you’re looking to get into opera, this fairly simple piece is a good place to start. We suspect opera buffs would dismiss it as lightweight froth; the Review Corner doesn’t particularly warm to opera yet we’ve enjoyed it. It’s a gateway CD: get into this and heavier opera will seem more palatable. The plot…

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    Balthazar: Thin Walls

    This Belgian band produced one of our albums of the year not long back. We’d guess they’re quite big in their native land, but didn’t do so well over here, which is a shame because they play distinctive indie pop with a sound that’s very much their own. It’s a bit hard to describe but…

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    Justin Townes Earle: Absent Fathers

    Justin is the son of the legendary Steve. The first time we heard Earle’s debut, Guitar Town we realised he was a major talent, but the son bares his talent more subtly. This is not his first album, but it is the first we’ve heard and the title suggests he’s wringing material from his troubled…

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    Django Django: Born Under Saturn

    This lot were critically adored for their debut album, although we’re not sure that translated into sales (we think we read they sold about 50,000 copies). If you missed them then, they play a distinctive style of indie pop, distinctive because it’s very percussive, the band being led by a drummer. The new album opens…

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    Various: Synth Pop

    This triple CD made us realise how much times have changed. It’s not that the tunes are bad — far from it, it’s an excellent compilation — but we remembered the first time we heard Oh Yeah by Yello. It’s a catchy little tune and one you’d want to hear over and over, but back…

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    Death Cab for Cutie: Kintsugi

    We have to declare an interest: we love Death Cab For Cutie and would give any album a glowing review, but even we have to admit that the band have left the glory days of 2003’s Transatlanticism far behind. The early songs were about new-found love and hope, now they’re all getting older and more…

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    Lord Huron: Strange Trails

    We were a little surprised at how country this album was, though we shouldn’t have been, as the first album, Lonesome Dreams, was equally so. Dreams did lean more to a spaced-out sound and we’d mentally bundled it up with Bon Iver’s For Emma Forever Ago, for some reason. Americans living in huts or something.…

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    Mew: + –

    It’s a week of bands we don’t know much about, Death Cab aside. Mew have apparently released a number of albums, though we’ve never come across them before. Plus Minus is an odd mix of sounds: it’s prog but on the subtle side, with none of the thundering complexity so beloved of some bands in…