Category: Pop rock
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Frøkedal: Hold On Dreamer
We’ve played this over and over and can’t get a handle on it. It’s her voice, which seems to suck out any excitement. Harsh, very harsh, we know, but it has to be said. The sign of where it fails comes on The Sign, a cheery indie pop tune with nice drums; if the…
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Coasts: Coasts
Single Oceans, which even we’ve heard on the radio, opens this album and sets the tone. A massive, catchy chorus, a sunny day feel, slick and commercial — it’s entertaining and pleasing to listen to, even uplifting in places, but we’ve heard it all before. Even at 37 minutes there’s a bit of padding. Name…
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Hinds: Leave Me Alone
This all-girl band from Madrid are going to be all over the shop this year, as youngsters discover how exciting music can be. Older fans will have heard it all before, The Troggs Wild Thing onwards. It’s got a definite ramshackle charm, albeit one that fades a little as the album plays through. A bit…
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Balsamo Deighton: Unfolding
We’ve had this for some weeks and we’ve played it a lot. It’s modern English pop/country and while there is nothing outstanding, it’s written and played to the highest standards. Some songs have got close to being earworms — Light In The Dark is one — and we love the guitar solo on the harmonica-laden…
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Phil Collins: Face Value / Both Sides
It’s not quite up there with Blackadder going over the top or Del Boy missing the bar and falling over, but one truly great television moment was the opening episode of Miami Vice: Crockett and Tubbs drive down a waterfront road in a Ferrari Daytona Spyder, racing to a show-down. The soundtrack that made it…
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They Might Be Giants: Why?
If TMBG had been alive a few hundred years ago, they’d have been Europe’s most famous court jesters. They write catchy tunes with the cleverest lyrics you ever stumbled across. The problem is that once you’ve heard a song once or twice, it’s played out. The lyrics are the thing, and when you’ve smirked a…
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Stephanie Kirkham: Tiny Spark
We’re highly impressed with this album, though its slickness might put people off: it makes Mumford and Sons sound like a grim underground black metal band. In a nutshell, she’s written the soundtrack to a rom-com (not starring Jennifer Aniston — it would be really good) with songs that are often jauntier than the Andrex…
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Fictonian: (Desire Lines)
We often wander the webbershpere, checking out other reviews, and we’ve never read such twaddle as was being written about this. We must have read half a dozen meandering reviews by people with nothing to say. It’s possibly the audience he’s aiming at though: his Press release talks about spending time in a Fictonian reality…
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Them: Complete Them 1964-1967
Stealing their name from now long-forgotten London band, Shorty and Them (“Nobody’s going to hear of us London” figured young Ivan Morrison), Them are the band with which Van the Man first made his name, though not much cash (“It was a weird situation to be famous and broke — it’s one thing being broke…
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