For a debut EP, this is impressive, and Veridian do a good impression of an American emo pop/punk band with half a dozen albums under their belt. That’s the problem with the sound of course: Veridian sound like any number of bands (You Me at Six, Mallory Knox, Fall Out Boy, Simple Plan) you’ve heard, […]
Too Many T’s: South City
Opener South City Court is not too promising, and neither is Sixty’s Ford until the chorus comes in, rapping about music, sibilantly swearing that the sixties, C60s and Seasick Steve is not their choice: “So we switch to the Beastie Boys”. Ah, they’re Beastie Boys fans and want to pick up where the Boys left […]
Gogol Bordello: Seekers and Finders
Gypsy punks Gogol Bordello emerged from the depths of the Balkans (ok so it was Lower East Side of Manhattan but that doesn’t sound so romantic) a good few years ago. We’ve never taken to their raucous brand of punk: it’s good fun and brilliant at a festival, but not something you’d sit and listen […]
Little Barrie: Death Express
This is an enjoyable low-fi/garage psychedelic rock album from a band we’ve never much taken to. We were going to wax lyrical about the sterling guitar and fine drums, but Googling for information, we find that drummer Virgil Howe, (41), died last week. He was the son of Yes guitarist Steve and had a young […]
Sparks: Hippopotamus
Well, that’s one of life’s mysteries sorted, though it’s going to cost us. The mystery was, “what’s the point of Sparks?” Aside from their hits (This Town Ain’t Big Enough, Beat The Clock etc) we could never see past the fact that they were a bit odd – the grunty falsetto vocals, the quirky/arty tunes, […]
Arcade Fire: Everything Now
The cool kids have been all over this, saying Arcade Fire have lost the plot. The Pitchfork review opens with “The pale, joyless songs don’t transcend their social critique — they succumb to it,” which merely shows, as the Canadians would say, they don’t know what they’re talking aboot. This is as good as […]
Steve Earle and The Dukes: So You Wannabe An Outlaw
Outlaw country had peaked by the time the Review Corner bought Steve Earle’s fantastic debut Guitar Town, but he was in the outlaw vein, both musically (blending rock and blues with country) and with his hell raisin’ lifestyle. With this new album, he reflects on the choices he made, now free from drugs and not […]
Sheryl Crow: Be Myself
After at least one album (the last one, anyway) of commercial country music designed to be played on a car radio on an open American highway, Sheryl Crow has gone back to the acoustic-based country pop-rock of yore. Also designed to be played on a car radio on an open American highway. It’s good, in […]
At the Drive-In: Inter Alia
At the Drive-In are a punk / post-hardcore band who released three studio albums before breaking up in 2001; this is the first album in 17 years. Following the break-up, half the band became The Mars Volta then Antemasque (which variously featured Flea on bass and Travis Barker on drums). But now they’re back and […]
Royal Blood: How Did We Get So Dark?
Royal Blood’s début did that clichéd thing of exploding on the music scene, literally and figuratively. Literally for the jaw-droppingly confident, Bonham-esque intro of the first song, Out Of The Black, distilling decades of rock from Zep to Muse in its opening moments. Figuratively, as they were held up as the vanguard of a new […]
