Review Corner

Category: Rock

  • Baroness: Purple

    This band’s John Baizley was in the Guardian recently, in the Saturday magazine’s Experience section. This is where people recount generally unpleasant things that befell them (“My head was bitten off by a leopard”, “I lived on soil for three years”). His was “Our tour bus drove off a viaduct”; they were driving near Bath…

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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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    Fun Lovin’ Criminals: Come Find Yourself

    The 20th anniversary “expanded edition box set” of what the Press release calls “a modern classic” offers all the FLC you could ever want. They’re an interesting band: over in the States we’ve mentioned them to music-loving Americans only to be met with blank stares. Only Scooby Snacks was a hit over there, and we…

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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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    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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    Kagoule: Urth

    This isn’t what we were expecting, which was some kind of organic indie: Kagoule are far more ambitious than that and this is an impressive debut. Despite being from Nottingham, Kagoule’s heads are over in the US, their sound being that underground rock the Americans do so well, somewhere between Californians Incubus and Billy Corgan’s…

  • One OK Rock: 35xxxv

    One Ok Rock are a Japanese rock band formed in 2005 and have sold a million albums over their career. With this new one we guess they’re trying to increase that into the tens of millions, via global sales. It’s a slick and highly commercial rock album. The clear influence is Linkin Park, both for…

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    Enter Shikari: The Mindsweep: Hospitalised

    We like Enter Shikari, with their shouty but politically charged songs coupling anger with metal/DnB. The Mindsweep, which came out early this year, was no different, the title referring to those in power withholding new ideas and keeping our minds swept clean. This sees Hospital Records’ producers remix the tracks, and we have to say…

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    Neil Young: Neil Young and Bluenote Café

    This live two-CD set offers up an unexpected side of Young, his blues and (almost) big band sound. It’s an intimate set that features seven unreleased songs. Standouts include the closing tracks on each CD, a smoky, jazz blues Twilight and a 20-minute version of Tonight’s The Night. The recordings are from the Bluenotes tour…