Category: Pop rock
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Gengahr: A Dream Outside
Gengahr (we’ve no idea how to pronounce it — Gengarrr as in “Gengarrrr me ‘arties?”) are a rather hyped band, and one of those myriad of “next big things” knocking about at any one time. At first listen, it’s both hard and easy to say why: easy because their slightly stoned, pleasant pop and falsetto…
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Jason Derulo: Everything Is 4
We tend to be a little sniffy about performers like this — sexist lyrics, formulaic RnB — but we have to say that Derulo has finally beaten us down and this isn’t bad at all. In fact track seven Broke, is nearly a must-hear tune, with a massive beat and catchy hook. But not quite.…
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Du Blonde: Welcome Back To Milk
Du Blonde is Beth Jeans Houghton, of Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves of Destiny fame (ok, relative fame), whose album Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose we found proficient but a little twee, not to say dull. One Review Cornerer did profess fondness for it and took the CD but we never heard it played. It…
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Muse: Drones
You should all know what Muse sound like; this album is more of the same but stripped down. There is Muse’s normal pomp and glamour but it sounds as if the three piece could have got somewhere close to doing this as live takes. The proclaimed theme of the album is drones, specifically the ones…
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Orphan Boy: Coastal Tones
Sometimes our favourite albums are not the most innovative, boundary-pushing or adventurous of the year but just routinely pleasant and done well. Such is the case with Orphan Boy, whose new album (their third we think) is not exactly ground breaking but is enjoyable. It’s a particularly summery album, not surprising since they hail from…
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Josh Groban: Stages
We know from visits to the States that Groban is massive over there (top-selling artist in 2007, and according to Wikipedia, 22m of his 25m sales are in his homeland). His semi-operatic / semi-pop music sells by the ton. Over here, his baritone renditions of his own and others’ tunes compete against similar known quantities…
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Paul Weller: Saturn’s Pattern
Admission time: we always thought Paul Weller’s music was a little samey. The aging Review Corner member bought the Jam’s first album and found it somewhat lacking in variation. Not being into Mod-dom probably didn’t help, but neither did all those ironed suits and scooters. As a singles band we always loved The Jam —…
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Slug: Ripe
As soon as we heard this, we thought: Field Music. And we couldn’t have been more right. Slug is, who plays bass in Field Music’s touring band (which means we’ve seen him a couple of times). Field Music’s Brewis Bros lent Black their studio and produce/play. Fans of Field Music should buy this as it’s…
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Timeshares: Already Dead
Without wanting to sound like sad music geeks, we didn’t have to look it up to know this was on the reliable SideOneDummy Records. SideOne helped to break Gaslight Anthem and its stable of artists usually has that blue collar Springsteen punk rock ‘n’ roll feel to them. Serious musicians playing serious music to have…
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Rob J Madin: Cracked Shattered and Pop
And then there are albums that utterly defy classification. Madin is best known for his comedy creation Brett Domino, who does slightly geeky musical comedies — he’s got 20 million hits on YouTube and did a Comic Relief song. He’s also C-Bomb, a slightly geeky dubstep producer in Sheffield, who had a pilot television show.…
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