Review Corner

Author: jerobear

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    The Jesus And Mary Chain: Damage and Joy

    We were never ones to worship bands; we never raved about The Jesus and Mary Chain — they’re just a band, all said and done — so this new album, the first new one in 19 years, seems pretty good. Maybe diehard fans will feel differently. The main problem for the band’s Reid brothers is…

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    Ben Marwood: Get Found

      There’s a raft of bands rotating around the daddy of this genre, Frank Turner: we most recently reviewed Beans On Toast, but there’s any number of singer-songwriters playing folk-based tunes with sincere and/or entertaining intelligent lyrics, and with links to Turner. Marwood is another. After the first couple of plays, we’d have said his…

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    Mark Nevin: My Unfashionable Opinion

    If you’re a fan of grown-up pop music, this is about as good as it gets. Nevin is best-known for his work with Fairground Attraction and Morrissey, and his last album, Beautiful Guitars was excellent. My Unfashionable Opinion, his fifth solo album, kicks off strongly with the title track, a song that features sterling organ…

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    Scouting For Girls: Scouting For Girls

    We’ve had many a pop gem land on the Review Corner desk over the years, usually to disappear without trace, from the folky Crash My Model Car and Martin John Henry to pop bands such as Allo Darlin’ and Portugal The Man, or the genius of Sparkadia. Scouting For Girls aren’t one of these lost…

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    Formation: Look at the Powerful People

    Formation have had a good idea: James Murphy is putting LCD Soundsystem back together (an album is due later this year), so they can steal a march and fill a hole in the life of LCD fans. They don’t do a bad job. The opener Drugs has it all: plenty of cowbell, a massive repeated…

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    Paul Weller: Jawbone

    As soundtracks go this is good, and Weller has done an excellent job. It’s pretty impressive as his first effort; maybe not quite as atmospheric as a Nick Cave and Warren Ellis job but they’ve had more practice. The opening track is Jimmy / Blackout, nearly 22 minutes long and pretty much ambient music throughout.…

  • Mirrors: Cattle & Cane

    We hate being mean about any albums, because writing even one decent tune is hard, but this album is clearly for people who find Mumford and Sons too freakin’ loud. Cattle & Cane play music that’s like the Mumfords but with Marcus’s atonal howling, the overbearing drums and the tedious metal guitar solos removed. All…

  • Dreamgirls — Original London Cast Recording

      We’re not big fans of musicals but this impressed: we’d think if you’re a fan of plays ruined by singing, you’ll love it. This is (as the name suggests) the original London cast performing, and it was recorded live at the Savoy Theatre. It’s based on the story of R&B acts such as The…

  • While She Sleeps: You Are We

    This is metalcore, a genre of music in which talented musicians who can play to a high standard and have a great singer deliberately reduce their potential audience by adding screaming and grunting. Go figure. It’s their career, but always baffles us. (Like a talented genius writing music reviews for a weekly newspaper and ……

  • My Baby: Prehistoric Rhythm

    We reviewed Little Dragon’s new one last week, noting they’d lost some of their early bounce. Now we know where it’s gone — the super-bouncy My Baby have nicked the bloomin’ lot This is the third album for Dutch band My Baby and we’ve been enjoying it a lot. It’s a mix of Little Dragon…