Category: Pop rock
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Live: Rewind, Capesthorne Hall, August 2015.
It was party time at Capesthorne Hall over the weekend as the latest of the now-annual Rewind festivals was held at the Siddington stately home. The event, which had a daily capacity 20,000, was sold out as thousands of fans of the 80s legends descended on Capesthorne in a range of fancy dress outfits. The…
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Lianne La Havas: Blood
A bit of a curate’s egg from Ms Barnes, with some songs swooningly nice and others gliding past the ears unheard, making as much fuss a quietly moving halibut. Opener Unstoppable is one of the former, a sultry, a slow jazzy number reminiscent of a summer’s day and sun-dappled trees. Wonderful is stripped back to…
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Calls Landing: Heirlooms
Watching Kerrang! television (as we often do), it’s noticeable that many of the tunes played are getting for two decades old — the likes of Blink 182, Sum 41, Offspring and Alien Ant Farm all get heavy rotation. Then there’s New Found Glory, who are maybe not up there with Blink or Green Day as…
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The Dunwells: Lucky Ones EP
The Dunwells are one of those bands that don’t really appeal to me, but I can see they’re extremely good. In fact, me saying this is good is better than a fan raving aobut them, because the fan is biased and I’m viewing it objectively. The Dunwells play pop that teeters on the middle of…
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Paul Smith and the Intimations: Contradicions
Smith is the singer with Maxïmo Park, who have a hard-core following (which includes the Review Corner) but have sold comparatively few albums — I think I saw a lifetime total of 2m the other week. Two million albums is good, but it’s not Oasis. A fair chunk of that was the A Certain Trigger,…
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Cattle and Cane: Skies / Hyde and Beast: Hard Times Good Times
Cattle and Cane: Skies Taken from the new album Home, this is a jolly while at the same time slightly downbeat country/pop tune. It’s both modern sounding and harking back to the generic sound of many a folk/rock hit of the seventies with its slightly anthemic singalong chorus. It’s a perky tune, though it didn’t…
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Heath Common: Encounters With Light
Common is a beat poet from Manchester. In real life (and under a different name) he’s a headteacher, and we wonder what his pupils think: “Sigh; Sir’s taken mescaline and started reading Henry Miller again…” Still, it’s a well-paid job and we suspect he’s funded most of his releases himself. This is the most ambitious…
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Alan Doyle: Where I Belong (Book)
After reviewing Bill Nelson’s book last week, despite not being familiar with his work from De Bop Deluxe onwards, this week it’s Alan Doyle. Not only did I not know who he was, but I’ve never heard of his band either. Doyle is the singer and guitarist with Canadian folk supergroup Great Big Sea and…
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Ratatat: Magnifique
This is definitely a grower; one play is not enough to start to appreciate its charms, and for several plays we were planning to dismiss it as a little bit annoying (a feature of their earlier work, apparently). As a rough guide, it’s quirky electronic dance/pop that sounds like it should be on French label…
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