Sugababes - Change
Five studio albums are a lot for a pop act - especially one who've twice changed line-ups and now feel more like a brand than an actual group. Indeed, you cannot help but get the impression that the story is petering towards an end. Here, the change that's signified by the title is a move away from the edgy, 80s-sampling trance-pop that has kept them fresh. Instead the 'babes have taken their sound further into bland cabaret territory with the spark and edge that made them credible and interesting, as well as accessible, surgically removed. That's not to say there aren't enough hits here to keep them in the singles charts for the next six months (Denial and 3 Spoons Of Suga are both superior offerings to that recent number one, About You Now); it's just that even their better moments now sound like a band on autopilot.
Change is on Universal
Babyshambles - Shotter's Nation
Babyshambles' songs often feel - and this is putting it politely - a little flaccid. On Shotter's Nation, as ever, Pete Doherty's songs start promisingly enough before spiraling down musical and poetic cul-de-sacs. And he's not breaking some unspoken rock 'n' roll rulebook; he just can't be arsed to finish what he starts. And although there's a shred of ramshackle, knockabout pirate charm to this, it's still all a bit of a shame because the album contains flashes of true brilliance - There She Goes is a drunken Lovecats, full of sloppy-kissed loveliness, Delivery like The Kinks filtered through The Clash, Baddies Boogie an alcoholic cockney knees up. And for all its lack of coherence Shotter's Nation is a much more enjoyable and fuller-sounding record than the cloudy, feeble mess of the band's debut, Down In Albion. Increasingly, one feels that Doherty's only chance of artistic salvation is reconciliation with his former foil in The Libertines, Carl Barat. Either that or a fortnight with Supernanny.
Shotter's Nation is on Parlophone
Jack Penate - Matinee
Penate recently graced the cover of NME with Kate Nash and looked so similar to George Michael that passers-by might momentarily have assumed that Wham! had reformed. There are many similarities with Nash, too - MySpace success, songs that pick at small everyday details and an unabashed niceness. Everything points to him being the modern day equivalent of Cliff Richard and Rick Astley, but such are the mysteries of fashion that this seems rebellious (in a DaveCam kind of way). The best tracks here (Torn On The Platform, Run For Your Life) follow a similar skiffle-pop trajectory to Jamie T's more accessible moments and detail the author's intentions to triumph over adversity - although the only adversity he appears to face are late-running trains and girls not fancying him. But when he breaks from this formula - on the sugary We Will Be Here and My Yvonne - not even strings and backing vocals from Nash can rescue the hollow sheen of light entertainment that even the X Factor judges would find too square.
Matinee is on XL Recordings
To buy this CD
Radiohead - In Rainbows
"The band's decision to release their album only via their website is a very interesting one - not least interesting is how much people are prepared to pay up front. And having listened, I'm feeling I was a tad miserly."
Johnny Dee on a fantastically good album
The Hives - The Black And White Album
The only real survivors of the 2001 garage rock scene (whither The Datsuns now?) Sweden's Hives won over both Britain and America with their cunning combination of riffs, stagecraft and an excellent line in matching black suits. For their fourth album, they have advanced considerably - and not just sartorially, though the 'Ivy League bully' blazers they often sport are most fetching. Realising that the public may have tired of their straight-up-and-at-'em bombast, the band has ensured that the album is littered with conceptual pop tunes that recall a long-forgotten era of novelty Europop hits by the likes of Trio and Plastic Bertrand; so Puppet On A String is a Munsters-esque prowl, T.H.E. H.I.V.E.S. like a cartoon version of Jane's Addiction, and Bigger Hole To Fill is The Strokes with an injection of Vitamin C. In between, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist leads his band through their normal Stooges-inspired territory with added gusto. It's fun, silly but - against the odds - still rocking.
The Black And White Album is on Polydor
Georgie James - Places
Like an American version of The Magic Numbers, this Washington DC group trades in gorgeous boy-girl harmonies and a lush blend of classic pop guitar sounds. Unashamedly infectious and Monkees-like, were it not for the occasional mentions of the internet (on the wonderful More Lights) and iPod culture (Comfortable Headphones) you could be convinced that this is a long-forgotten album by contemporaries of the Mamas and Papas or Simon and Garfunkel. The sunny melodies hit a peak on Need Your Needs - with its brilliant shifts of tempo and girl group handclaps - and the frothy escapism of Cheap Champagne, but there's fabulous retro pop wonder throughout.
Places is on Saddle Creek
Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew - Spirit If...
It's not entirely clear what you should call Broken Social Scene - a collective? A commune? A flock? Whatever, Kevin Drew was the founding member of this loose Canadian big band from which many other acts have sprung (Feist, Stars, Metric). Obviously not one to be alone in the studio, he's surrounded himself with many of his former band-mates on his solo debut, as well as offering up a sterling guest spot to Dinosaur Jr guitarist J Mascis on Backed Out On The... The scrapbook approach to song structure and fading in and out of sound levels seem overdone in places; but at its greatest - the fabulous F--ked Up Kid and Farewell To The Pressure Kids - it's like the gorgeous pop offspring of OK Computer and Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation.
Spirit If... is on City Slang
How I Became The Bomb - Let's Go
From the rhinestone-stitched heartland of country music, these Nashville mischief-makers wear Edwardian foppery and create a frantic pop blast that recalls US new wavers Devo and The Cars. And on one track - the wondrous Minute Romance - they sound like Buddy Holly being attacked by robots. It couldn't really be much further from Dolly Parton - which is possibly the point. Such a sound could make the band sound pompous, were it not for the fact that every track on this mini-album is absurdly catchy. And, as titles such as Fat Girls Talkin' Bout Cardio and Kneel Before Zod indicate, they are not entirely serious. But it's not all throwaway. Killing Machine deals with the de-humanising realities of war but still manages to attach the message to perky hook-laden melodies, while Secret Identity has all the same indie synth-pop thrills as The Killers. Quirky but loveable.
Let's Go is on Goldrush
Ian Brown - The World is Yours
When in previous decades an ageing solo artist got an orchestra in to offer a slight deviation from his standard sound, the album would be titled '...With Strings'. The World Is Ours, then, is the former Stone Roses front man's 'With Strings' album, its beautifully dark orchestral arrangements giving elegance and gravitas to lumpy beats and drawled delivery. The results are low on melody but big on ideas and spirit. On Illegal Attacks (featuring a still-narky Sinead O'Connor) Brown is for instance willing to risk writing about the biggest issue of current times - Iraq - and elsewhere takes a pop at globalisation, slavery and the politics of poverty. Some of it makes him seem a bit of a Speakers' Corner loon, especially as his biggest grudge seems to be against organised religion. But whether you agree with Brown's conspiracy politics or not, here at least is an artist who has not forgotten that rock 'n' roll is supposed to be about rebellion.
The World is Yours is on Polydor
Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
Sam Beam, the solo artist hiding behind the Iron and Wine name, has a big luxuriant beard that gives him the look of a man taking a break from building his ark. He also has a hushed, steady delivery that makes you listen all the harder. Subtle arrangements and lyrics like snatches of Raymond Carver stories make an album that's quietly spectacular. Lovesong of The Buzzard is a beautiful folk-blues shuffle with slide guitar, organ and accordion all swelling around on a spring breeze, while Boy With A Coin has acoustic guitar and flamenco handclaps. The prevailing mood - particularly on the stunning Resurrection Fern - is dark, sad and unsettling. Listen once and it'll haunt you until you return for more.
The Shepherd's Dog is on Transgressive
Oasis - Lord Don't Slow Me Down
This could be an answer single, over a decade on, to the same men who wrote Cigarettes And Alcohol. Back then, the world was at their feet; now they justifiably feel they've got it licked and can move onwards without the aid of the white line to see them through. By their own standards, this isn't in the same league as the singles from the first two albums - but then it is taken from their forthcoming DVD rather than a new album, so they can be forgiven for keeping the good stuff back. But it still grows with every play and fits in nicely with the Beatles/Dylan sound they've since made their own.
Lord Don't Slow Me Down is on Big Brother
Jakobinarina
These Icelandic teens include an impressive list of influences on their MySpace page - Suicide, The Velvet Underground, The Smiths and, strangely, Audrey Hepburn. They sound like none of them, but their strict geometric fringes are similar to those once favoured by the movie star. In fact, they make a swear-word happy, snarly punk racket that's full of sarcastic attacks on mediocrity and blandness. It's fabulously spikey and tuneful stuff that, with a tour support to Kaiser Chiefs coming up, could translate to more mainstream success. Let's hope so - Jakobinarina are a riot.
See more Jakobinarina at myspace.com/jakobinarina
Reptile Palace Orchestra
Listen up: we've never heard of this Mexicali group, but full marks for the fan video, shot using a kite - makes a change from waving your mobile in the air and hoping for the best. Tags: reptile, kite, female, trumpet
Vincent Vincent And The Villains
With an album on the way and a great single in On My Own, success is looking ever more certain for these Bethnal Green rogues. Their slick rockabilly pop sound shares roots with The Rumble Strips (no surprise that Strips' singer Charlie Waller is a former Villain - a fact documented in the superb single Johnny Two Bands) but owes more to 1950s rock 'n' roll. Led by the charming Mr Vincent, this band's enthusiastic live shows avoid the normal mosh-pit scenario in favour of jiving and bopping. So leave that frown at the bar and dust off your dance shoes.
UK Tour begins at Audio in Brighton. For full dates and ticket details go to myspace.com/vvandthev
Reviews by Johnny Dee
FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 12, 2007
