Category: Rock
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Michael Malarkey: Mongrels
Malarkey is an American actor and musician though he sounds English: his father is Irish American, his mother British and he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He is best known for playing the role of Enzo in the series The Vampire Diaries (apparently). Some actors make terrible musicians, but Malarkey…
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Reverend and the Makers: The Death Of A King
While listening to the dub reggae-tinged Boomerang, we were able to place this album: The Rev (aka Jon Mclure) is the white middle-aged Rastafarian you see down the pub. Nice bloke, intelligent, knows a lot of stuff, but while you half think he’s cool, you’re never going to want to look, or live, like him.…
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Robert Plant: Carry Fire
We’ve been giving Robert Plant money for 40 years, so we’re rocking out around the zimmers to this (and it’s the 200th review we’ve written this year, go us!). A decade or so ago, we read that Plant expected to lose his record deal and sell purely to his fanbase; then came Alison Kruze and…
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The War On Drugs: A Deeper Understanding
It’s not often that we agree with the national critics, whose albums of the year are always works we never thought much of, while our favourites never feature in anyone else’s top 50 CDs. This new The War On Drugs album, their fourth, has been universally praised and analysed and, for once, we’re on board.…
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Veridian: 40826D
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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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