Voxtrot - Voxtrot
Pitched in their home country as anglophile Smiths fans, to British ears these Texans sound like an indiepop version of Mercury Rev. The vocals are clean and mannered, the songs catchy and the lyrics wracked with self doubt and sensitivity; but what really makes them stand out is the complexity and thought that's been put into the music - particularly the string arrangements and Jared Van Fleet's tumbling piano style. It's complex but also easy on the ear - a rare phenomenon indeed. This added dimension gives their debut an appeal far beyond their internet buzz band status, and the album's finest tracks - Future Part 1, which outlines a dream summer "playing soccer and kissing girls", Blood Red Shoes and Real Life Version - take a few plays to emerge. For the patient, a fine album awaits. Voxtrot is on Playlouder
King Creosote - Bombshell
You may have heard King Creosote on the soundtrack to Jamie Bell's peeping tom movie Hallam Foe, where Kenny Anderson's twisted folk provides a neat fit to the film's perverse humour. This is his second album for a major label (he uses the name King Creosote for solo releases), but many limited edition CDR releases preceded it and he claims to have a catalogue of 600 tunes to cull from. It's believable. There's a readiness and simplicity to his music, and even though the production irons out a lot of the creases, little gets in the way of the songs and tunes. The Cluedo name-dropping You've No Clue Do You is by far his most commercial track to date but many delicate treasures lurk within the cracks - Nooks is Kevin Rowland in a kilt, Cockle Shell a fantastic tune about the dark consequences of a jealous lover. Bombshell's songs are beautiful - but they come with a sting, and the occasional dark joke. Bombshell is on 679 Recordings
Turin Brakes - Dark on Fire
Four albums in and Dark on Fire sounds like the Balham duo of Gale Paridjanian and Olly Knights are attempting to take a step up to the big league. Without losing their trademark gloomy acoustic sound, they've made an album that's bigger, warmer and strangely more accessible too. Timewaster, Last Chance and Real Life are all heart-pumping singalongs that build on the template of Summer Rain and Painkiller from previous albums, but with a fuller sound. And Something In My Eye sounds like the kind of massive ballad that could rival Snow Patrol; Stalker is great, too. They've recorded here with their touring band for the first time, and the difference is made even more marked by the production chops of Ethan Johns who gives them the same open country rock sound he achieved with Kings Of Leon and Ryan Adams. Their best album so far.
Dark on Fire is on Source
Stephen Fretwell - Man On The Roof
The Scunthorpe singer-songwriter's 2004 debut, Magpie, featured two classics in Emily and New York, both of which traded in equally dark measures of humour, spirit and heartache. The rest of the album didn't quite live up to the promise of those tracks, but on Man On The Roof there's much more to admire; there's a simple honesty to the production and a pleasing, unpretentious atmosphere. The Lennon-esque Coney - which, like several other tracks, deals with adultery - is a stomping opener, with stumbling cymbal crashes and end-of-the-pier organ, but in our world of Mika and Blunt this is the closest Fretwell gets to sounding commercial. Instead Darlin' Don't, The Ground Beneath My Feet, Funny Hat and Scar are all magnificently happy/sad, laconic strum-alongs delivered in an unfettered, bleak Lincolnshire drawl.
Man On The Roof is on Fiction
Siouxsie - Mantaray
There were few women involved in the punk era but one of its most uncompromising voices belonged to Siouxsie Sioux. Incredibly, this is her first solo album. Even more incredibly, it’s more than worth the wait. Soundwise, it's closer to The Creatures' percussive flights of exotic fancy than The Banshees, but it's more experimental, freewheeling and commercial (yes, commercial) than anyone could have imagined. The bulk of the tracks here split into two camps - industrial glam metal (single Into A Swan features fearsome guitar squall) and huge gothic torch songs (the wonderful If It Doesn’t Kill You being the prime example). But there's also plenty of oddness, strange chanting, horror soundtrack moments and lyrics of a kinky diva bent. In short, it's spectacular.
Mantaray is on Universal
Kanye West - Graduation
As far as trajectory goes, Graduation fails to improve on the two albums that preceded it - 2004's Late Registration and 2005's College Dropout - but it is still a wonderful, forward-reaching hip hop album. As ever, Kanye's ear for an arcane sample - from Steely Dan on Champion to Daft Punk on Stronger - and unexpected guest (Chris Martin is brilliantly utilised on Homecoming) is as brash as his choice in shades. Meanwhile, Good Life and Flashing Lights are unique upbeat pop treasures. But Graduation's greatness also turns out to be its weakness - Kanye's inner wrestling between fame and faith, ego and self-worth dominates much of the lyrics, and is irritatingly self-obsessed, though an agreeable change to the bragging of most rappers. His one slip into the standard territory of his peers - Drunk and Hot Girls - marks his poorest moment to date. If he can concentrate on just being himself and not worrying about it, the further education of Mr West will be unmissable.
Graduation is on Mercury
50 Cent - Curtis
50 Cent's brutal life story - the fact that he has suffered hardship, served time and survived numerous gunshot wounds - has made him a poster boy for the dying embers of the gangsta rap genre. Meanwhile his diamond smile, intellect and calm nature have disarmed anyone who thought there was no intelligence behind his music - there's plenty. The problem is that 50 has also become everything that is bad about hip hop and music in general - he is more of a brand than a rapper, a salesman for a variety of products and well on his way to becoming a billionaire. Sure, this makes him a great businessman, but it has little to do with music. Here then is a rap album by numbers with equal time divided between counting his cash, alluding to cliched gun crime scenarios and, on the woeful Amusement Park, suspect analogies between fun fair rides and sex. Before the hyped-up sales war with Kanye West, there was little appetite for this album - and with good reason. Early retirement beckons.
Curtis is on Polydor
Maps - To The Sky
A beautiful anthem for the final days of summer, To The Sky is one of the finest moments from the brilliant British bedroom epic, We Can Create. All lush layered vocals, shimmering cloud bursting electronics and childlike wonder, To The Sky now comes with fittingly moony video. Plus, if you buy the CD, a fantastic remix from the Loving Hand (aka DFA's Tim Goldsworthy).
To The Sky is on Mute
Dizzee Rascal
Following his stunning appearances at V and Get Loaded In The Park last month, the boy from Bow has announced a headline tour for October and November. Britain's most dynamic rapper's hectic live show is not to be missed and is likely to be very different to his stint later in the year as support to Babyshambles.
Tour opens at Glasgow ABC on 31 October with prices from £13.50. Full details from dizzeerascal.co.uk
Old Folks
Listen up: First Kanye sticks it on a mix tape, now Nena (minus her red balloons) and a couple of older fellas translate Peter, Bjorn and John's mighty Young Folks into German. Doesn't really work, but still cute. Tags: nena trio vollidiot remmler
Bombay Bicycle Club
Not to be confused with the award winning Indian restaurant, these barely legal teens hail from the North London suburbs bordering on Highgate Woods - soon to be known in indie rock parlance as Cajun Dance Party country - and excel in tuneful, fresh, feelgood indie scramble. Despite their tender years, they've already got a fair degree of success behind them - winning a Channel 4 competition to play at last year's V Festival, getting to number 33 on the itunes indie chart with their debut EP, not to mention opening the second stage at this year's Reading. Greatness awaits, and come the end of next month - when they release their second EP - they'll be hotter than July (July 2006, that is).
See more of Bombay Bicycle Club at myspace.com
Reviews by Johnny Dee
FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 14 , 2007
