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INDIE ROCK THE COURTEENERS Falcon (A&M Records) ●●●●● JAZZ JULIEN LOURAU Quartet Saigon (Naive) ●●●●●
The second album from The Courteeners proves that this Manchester band aren’t afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves. Openly describing themselves as a mix of Morrissey, Elbow and The Verve, these musical patrons clearly hold great sway over the band’s derivative sound. Delivering a touching slice of indie rock that will charm fans of the old-school Britpop genre, they’ve chosen to steer well clear of the electro that is beginning to overpower indie, and it works. ‘The Rest of the World Has Gone Home’ is a stand-out track, while new single ‘You Overdid it Doll’ sounds like the anthem to a Mancunian lad’s night out. In a good way. (Nicola Paul)
POP-PUNK COBRA STARSHIP Hot Mess (Atlantic) ●●●●●
This latest from the New York electro boppers has some pretty disposable tracks, like lacklustre ‘Fold Your Hands Child’ (a nod to the album of the same name by twee-heroes, Belle & Sebastian) but when they step it up, it is potent stuff. Soon-to-be club
classic ‘Good Girls Go Bad’ is sugary sweet but instantly memorable, whilst the Fall Out Boy cameo’d ‘You’re Not In On The Joke’ (Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz lend backing vocals) is funk delectability. Taken with a little pinch of salt, Hot Mess is worth the wait. (Chris Cope)
French saxophonist Julien Lourau’s band, and this album, both take their name from the fact that the first gig with this line-up took place in Saigon in 2007, rather than any deeper connection with Vietnam.
The Marseilles-based saxophonist has been playing with pianist Laurent Coq for a couple of decades, and their playing and compositional styles provide coherence and a subtle degree of contrast at the core of the band’s music. A strong line-up is
completed by two players from the New York scene, bassist Thomas Bramerie and drummer Otis Brown III. Closing with a respectful cover of the Bacharach- David tune ‘A House Is Not A Home’, the other ten compositions are divided equally between Lourau and Coq. The saxophonist has done a lot of work in more groove-based crossovers, but this is a fine set of hard-edged, straight(ish) jazz with a distinctly lyrical feel on the gentler material. (Kenny Mathieson)
METAL ROB ZOMBIE Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool (Roadrunner) ●●●●●
Rob Zombie is certainly one of the most enigmatic figures in modern metal. He’s evolved from rock star to a full-blown, gore- loving stage persona (a feat last pulled off by
Record Reviews Music
ALSO RELEASED
Holly Miranda The Magician’s Private Library (XL) ●●●●●
Produced by Dave ‘TV On the Radio’ Sitek, this impressive, otherworldly debut is Cat Power-esque, with Au Revoir Simone beats. Sharleen Spiteri The Movie Songbook (Mercury) ●●●●● Texas’s frontwoman goes all ‘Liza Streisand’ on this cover LP. Her ‘Take My Breath Away’, ‘Xanadu’ and ‘If I Can’t Have You’ left us craving the originals though.
The Knife (with Mt Sims and Planningtorock) Tomorrow, in a Year
(Brille) ●●●●● Darwin’s discoveries get an ‘electro meets classical’ touch in this tribute opera. Fever Ray or Silent Shout fans will find it far more ‘uphill’, but if you like multi-layered creative whimsy, it’s streaming at www.theknife.net Two Door Cinema Club Tourist History (Kitsune) ●●●●● Perky indie-pop from Northern Ireland, on dancey Paris label. Sounds like Franz crossed with The Feeling on ‘Do You Want It All’ and ‘This Is The Life’, with sub- Postal Service echoes on ‘I Can Talk’.
Efterklang Magic Chairs (4AD) ●●●●●
If Alphabeat’s hyper- pop on The Spell makes you forget what you ever saw in Denmark, Efterklang deliver subtle, tinkling orchestral pop by way of national apology. Iain Shaw
May You Live All The Days of Your Life (Vow of Noise) ●●●●● Recorded over four hours in Glasgow, Shaw’s covers LP includes gentle, intriguing, but over-tweedy and earnest folk versions of Motorhead and The Ramones (‘Blitzkreig Bop’).
INDIE THE WINTER OF MIXED DRINKS Frightened Rabbit (Fat Cat) ●●●●●
Along with The Twilight Sad and The Phantom Band, Frightened Rabbit are at the vanguard of Scottish indie, building a fine reputation for powerful, plaintive rock shapes and brutally honest lyricism. Their two albums to date have shown buckets of promise; promise which is mostly delivered here. The Winter of Mixed Drinks is a more upbeat and coherent album than 2008’s The Midnight Organ Fight, with a handful of brilliant tracks demonstrating singer Scott Hutchison’s maturing songwriting skills. This is first evident in rabble-rousing second track, ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’, a rattling juggernaut of a tune that marries the whole album’s message of learning to let go with a singalong chorus The Arcade Fire or The Killers would be proud of.
This trick is reproduced several times, like on new single ‘Nothing Like You’ or the album’s focal point, ‘Living in Colour’, both songs managing to reproduce the drive the band have always exhibited on stage.
Elsewhere it’s not all unremitting genius, and the extra coherence they’ve
created comes at a price. There’s a danger at times of the band’s trademark sound descending into banality, with a few of the tracks here washing over the listener even after repeated listens, something not aided by Hutchison’s reliance on highly repetitive melody lines. But overall this is undoubtedly a step forward for a band who have all the requisite skills and personality to break through into the mainstream. Is 2010 the year of the rabbit? It could well be. (Doug Johnstone)
Marilyn Manson to increasingly lacklustre results). Taking a break from
directing extreme horror films with, as the title here suggests, a sequel to Zombie’s 1998 solo debut, this is a heady mix of metal, rockabilly, glam rock and industrial with a nod to exploitation cinema both in style and tone. (‘Werewolf Women of the SS’ shares the title of his fake trailer as seen in Tarantino/ Rodriguez’s double feature Grindhouse). Schlock rock perfection. (Henry Northmore)
COLOURFUL POP TORO Y MOI Causers of This (Car Park) ●●●●●
Toro Y Moi is Martian- talk for ‘pissed-up, blissed-out pop’. Or so South Carolinian electro-bard Chaz Bundick would have us believe on Causers of This – his computer- engendered, patchouli- infused and entirely affable debut album. Tipping his hat to the
polychrome likes of Daft Punk, J Dilla, Sonic Youth and Animal Collective, Bundick’s digital wig-outs, woozy psychedelics, fuzzball
MOR and cut-up chorales are equal parts fresh and familiar – not least on the decade-embracing ‘Imprint After’: it gladly amasses 70s space- funk, 80s chart-soul and 90s piano house. Of course that means it’s excellent. As if you had to ask. (Nicola Meighan)
18 Feb–4 Mar 2010 THE LIST 63