Review Corner

Author: jerobear

  • , , ,

    Gorillaz:Humanz / Paul Weller: A Kind Revolution / Paramore: After Laughter

    We’re lumping these albums together under the heading “stadium bands” because all we need to do is tell you they’re out. Oddly enough, we’ve never been fans of any: we never got Gorillaz, thought The Jam/Weller humourless (good singles, admittedly) and Paramore are the band we let the children like (they’ve got to have something…

  • ,

    Mélanie Pain: Parachute

    We’ve not come across Pain before but the Press notes say she has “left her pop-folk influences far behind”. Well, not all that far. This is a piano-based album that aims to be slightly arty and dreamy, with a minimalist sound. She sings in French throughout, the soft vocals part of the texture as much…

  • Anteros: Drunk EP

    Anteros (we assume it’s pronounced Ant-air-ross) are a London-based quartet playing indie pop/rock that channels the 80s. While nothing new, it’s fun and full of bounce, and plenty of hooks. The title track opens, about being drunk and in love, and doing crazy things. Drunk and happy or drunk and wearing beer goggles is never…

  • ,

    Hunter and The Bear: Paper Heart

    The Press release says this band are the “heroes British rock needs right now” and for once (music Press releases can be so gushing they make the Niagara Falls look like a park weir) it’s an understatement. Hunter and The Bear are unbelievably good and the band the whole world needs, never mind our small…

  • Ophelia: Ophelia EP

    Rebecca Van Cleave and Sam Taylor are singer songwriters in their own right and formed as a duo on the road, travelling along Florida’s Emerald Coast, as you do. (Van Cleave has been a body double in Game of Thrones, for that naked walk, we think). Van Cleave and Taylor claim musical influences from 60s…

  • Plaitum: Constraint

    Plaitum do one thing. They do it really well but it’s their one trick: if you’re in the mood for cavernous, grandiose electronic pop it’s really good. If you’re not, it’s a band doing the same thing for 40 minutes. As a debut album, it’s pretty impressive, though. The Press release talks about more modern…

  • Johnny Lloyd: Eden EP

    This is a few weeks old but still getting played daily in the Review Corner: it’s well worth checking out if you like quality pop. Lloyd was in Tribes, a band that existed from 2010-13 (they supported the Stones at Hyde Park), so he’s been around the block and learned his stuff. Opener Running Wild…

  • ,

    Old Crow Medicine Show: 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde

    For fans of Bob Dylan, folk, bluegrass or country, this is going to be pretty close to a perfect record. In the sleeve notes, Old Crow’s Ketch Secor says Bob Dylan inspired him to go into music and that Dylan is “the greatest spinner of rhyme and couplet since Shakespeare”. You can take it that…

  • ,

    Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Complete Sonatas For Violin And Piano

    Weinberg is recognised as one of the outstanding Russian composers of the second half of the 20th century (say the Press notes, we won’t pretend we knew that). He was feted for his symphonies and string quartets, but also wrote a sequence of violin sonatas. Shostakovich’s influence is evident (say the notes) in the Third…

  • ,

    The Undercover: Hippy Truth and Fiction

    The Undercover Hippy — his mum calls him Billy — is one mixed up dude: he sounds like he should have long hair but doesn’t; on record he sounds a bit of a crusty but he’s a smart young man (his mum must be proud); he raps like Eminem but to reggae. He’s certainly different.…