Music Record Reviews www.list.co.uk/music
SINGLES & DOWNLOADS A. Skills
What’s that Lassie? Name+Relucto are trapped down the well? ‘Spawnofspoon EP’ (Hum+Haw) ●●●●● is a plinky-plonky kind of techno that is thankfully less like being punched hard in the face over and over, and more like the voices in your head have taken to communicating solely through the medium of bubble-wrap. And so begins our fortnightly foray into the world of singles and downloads. Next in the player is A. Skills featuring Krafty Kuts block rockin’ the friendly end of breaks, as is his wont. ‘Happiness’ (Finger Lickin’) ●●●●● is a doozy. Then it’s original 80s electro with a satisfying R&B hook coming out of Edinburgh; unlikely indeed but Young Fathers are oddly appealing on ‘Straight Back On It’ (Black Sugar) ●●●●●. Having fully anticipated a mid- to-poor offering that I’d have to be kind about from local, soft-centred indie-rockers Underbelly, ‘Empty Faces’ (Demo) ●●●●● proves to be pretty decent thank you very much, as is ‘Goodbye Boyfriend’ (F&J/Rat Race) ●●●●● by The Amphetameanies, which is a shame because we should have reviewed this cheeky Vaudevillian band stand number months ago. Jesca Hoop is more than just a funny name, she makes some contrary, ethereal, bonkers and beguiling music, throwing in at least three lovely yet unrelated melodies per song on her ‘Kismet Acoustic EP’ (Last Laugh/Nettwerk) ●●●●●. Surely by now everyone recognises James Yorkston as the magnificently mournful musical man-witch he must be but you haven’t heard ‘Tortoise Regrets Hare’ (Domino) ●●●●● until you’ve witnessed the thorough King Creosoting it gets on the flip. Name of the fortnight surely goes to The Felt Tips. ‘Bought and Sold’ (WeePOP!) ●●●●● brims with a jangly, off-centre cheek typified by the aforementioned and another Scottish bunch that we’ll resist naming (but begins with a B and ends with elleandsebastien). So A. Skills can have Single of the Fortnight for sounding like nothing else in the bag and for being a proper slice of heavyweight pop that just won’t stop. (Mark Edmundson)
FOLK KING CREOSOTE & HMS GINAFORE Love + Hate = Hate (Fence) ●●●●● Providing the finest cross-gender pop union since Bonnie Tyler inveigled Todd Rundgren, this bilateral treat from the Fence Collective king and queen might invoke the mathematical tongue, but this is an album of human equations: limbs are mapped; heartbeats are charted; regrets are
calculated. They figure out the things that count. It’s rife with sublime
electro sonnets, squeezebox apologies and down-home odes, but don’t overlook the Slipknot homage
64 THE LIST 27 Nov–11 Dec 2008
(whose ‘People I Shit’ is herewith superseded by melodic badinage and algebraic repartee); nor the insanely unsung talent of Ginafore: ‘Hare and the Tortoise’ measures a punk- baiting 56 seconds, and equals genius. (Nicola Meighan) POP IN INDIE CLOTHING THE KILLERS Day & Age (Island) ●●●●●
As much as they try to conceal it with dodgy facial fuzz and crunchy guitar riffs, The Killers are just a big brash pop band at heart. The clues are in Brandon Flowers’ penchant for outlandish outfits and, of course, his way with a catchy chorus. On Day & Age, the Las Vegas quartet ditch Springsteen and finally fully embrace their Pet Shop Boys side, doling out a crisp and camp mix of dancefloor- worthy beats, melancholy melodies, tooting horns, chiming bells, grand pianos and jaunty disco basslines – and they sound all the more comfortable for it. Admittedly none of these twelve tracks even touches pop music’s grand masters Xenomania, but oh boy, they’re getting closer . . . (Camilla Pia) JAZZ BRIAN KELLOCK The Nine Mile Burn Sessions (Thick Records) ●●●●●
It has been too a long a wait for a follow up to pianist Brian Kellock’s award-winning Live At Henry’s set. This album is an excellent launch for a potentially significant new recording project from Cathie Rae’s Thick Skinned Productions, and juxtaposes six solo piano outings with five duets featuring saxophonist Julian Argüelles. The collaboration provides both players ample scope for creative invention and interaction, and nowhere more so than
on a sparkling version of a Kellock favourite, Lee Konitz’s ‘Thingin’’ (based on ‘All The Things You Are’). The other duets – ‘Dedicated To You’, ‘Nancy’, ‘They Say It’s Wonderful’ and ‘The Masquerade (Is Over)’ – are not far behind. Kellock is always most at home in the standard repertoire, and stretches his melodic and harmonic ingenuity to the full, while the ever resourceful Argüelles invariably finds something fresh and arresting to say. The pianist is in equally impressive fettle on his solo selections, including Ellington’s ‘Don’t You Care To Know’, ‘Blame It On My Youth’ and ‘Young & Foolish’. (Kenny Mathieson)
POP BRITNEY SPEARS Circus (Sony) ●●●●●
Tabloid hysteria aside, Britney Spears is shaping up to be one of pop’s most interesting stars, and if we’re lucky, she’ll endure more iconic chameleon-esque reinventions, Madge- style, for many years to come. Some will fail spectacularly and some, like magnificent sixth album Circus, will reaffirm exactly why we need her around. One of 2008’s finest singles, ‘Womanizer’ is an excellent place to start, and soon gives way to a plethora of instant Spears classics; much less reliant on the vocoder than Blackout and driven by crunchy beats, defiant lyrics, infectious hooks and soaring melodies. It’s dark, edgy and ever-so-
cleverly made – with the minor exception of ‘My Baby’, which is a right soppy clanger. Skip that and play the awesome ‘Kill The Lights’ twice instead. (Camilla Pia) SEASONAL ROCK GLASVEGAS The Christmas Album (Sony/BMG) ●●●●●
Available via download or as part of repackaged re- release of their debut long player this isn’t quite the full on Christmas ‘album’ Glasvegas promised, but they have delivered six outstanding songs for the holiday season. And it appears to be a pretty grim Christmas at the Glasvegas household with tracks like ‘Fuck You, It’s Over’ and ‘Please Come Back Home’. However, it’s this honesty smashing through the fallacy of ‘jolly’ festivities (Christmas does have the highest suicide rate of the year after all) that captures a sense of the season with more emotional resonance than the combined Slades, Cliffs and Wizards of the world can muster. (Henry Northmore) ROCK GUNS N’ ROSES Chinese Democracy (Geffen) ●●●●●
There were a few moments in the last 17 years that it felt like this album was likely to arrive after the dawning of actual Chinese democracy, there in rendering Axl Rose’s political musings, at best prophetic, and at worst ill-timed, such was his slovenly work rate. But for better or for worse, here’s the new Guns N’ Roses album. Cursed under the weight of years of waiting, this
album was always going to be an anti-climax and virtually every moment of Chinese Democracy seems over-thought and overworked, often stifling the decent songs within. Unsurprisingly, from the man who always thought more was more, this is excessive to excess, and woefully flabby in places, especially on anthemic moments like ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and ‘Street of Dreams’, but there are still enough momentary flashes of the old steel that made the Appetite for Destruction so good. (Mark Robertson)
POP KANYE WEST 808s and Heartbreak (Roc-a-Fella) ●●●●●
Of the great break up albums in music lore – Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear, Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks or even Beck’s Sea Change – few have coincided with a musical watershed such as the Matt Damon of hip hop’s fourth album. More than just a break- up record – it was recorded just after the death of West’s mother – this is the sound of someone at the their commercial zenith taking a wilful (reckless?) turn away from his roots to make an odd, highly stylised pop record. 808s and Heartbreak
is all plaintive croons, Atari console bleeps and hollow tribal beats generated by a the eponymous Roland TR- 808 drum machine. Only the mildly narcotic ambience, West’s two dimensional approach to women (they are baaaaaad!) and a token appearance from Lil’ Wayne are what remain of West’s hip hop origins.
While the majority of his contemporaries excel in formula, West’s confessional tone is compelling, and in parts brave and surprisingly coherent. (Mark Robertson)