list.co.uk/music SINGLES
Records – Singles & Live Reviews | MUSIC
SINEAD O’CONNOR 8 Good Reasons (Nettwerk Music Group) ●●●●● THE SON(S) Death, With Castanets (Olive Grove Records) ●●●●●
Though not quite a reinvention, Sinead O’Connor’s sound of recent years is a notable shift in musical terms. Much of her latest album I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss sounds as though she downloaded the combined greatest hits of the female pop singers who’ve hogged the charts for the last five years and reworked the general idea with better lyrics and more engaging vocals. ‘8 Good Reasons’ has plenty of both set to a fairly ordinary pop-rock track vaguely reminiscent of Skunk Anansie. Still, the arguments in favour constitute a victory for substance over style. Opening with a haunting organ refrain and fragile vocal intro before bursting into life in a rush of guitars and swirling harmonies, this is the most joyous, hummable song on the Son(s)’ exquisite second album, The Things I Love Are Not At Home. A giddy, all-too-brief slice of bookish, psychedelic pop, it hints at a more refined sound for the band. Warm and full of stumbling charm. ■ Death, With Castanets available for download now, the album is out on Mon 27 Oct, soundcloud.com/ the-son-s
JON HOPKINS Asleep Versions (Domino) ●●●●● TWIN ATLANTIC Hold On (Red Bull Records) ●●●●●
Recorded in Reykjavik earlier this year and originally intended to be a single 25-minute track, ‘Asleep Versions’ became four decelerated, dreamlike reimaginings of tracks from Hopkins' Mercury-nominated Immunity, including the album’s titular single, ‘Form By Firelight’, ‘Breathe This Air’ and ‘Open Eye Signal’. Hypnotic, sensuous, coruscating loveliness abounds in the way we have come to expect from Hopkins. He is a master of sonic salve for weary hearts and keen ears. As calming and soporific as this EP is in parts, there is plenty of texture and spark to hold the attention. Superb. Like most of the songs from Twin Atlantic’s Great Divide album, ‘Hold On’ is light on subtlety and heavy on forced intensity. It’s catchy and far from impossible to sing along to, but it’s also ridden with clichés about emotional fortitude in the face of life’s turbulences (‘let me live in the eye of the storm/let me show how to it feels to be alone’) and it doesn’t really say anything about anything. The kind of song people listen to in their bedrooms post break-up when they should be out doing something interesting and restorative instead. (Singles reviewed by Rachel Devine)
G R E G N E A T E
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N C O L A C O L L N S
ACOUSTIC BASS HOWIE REEVE Platform, Easterhouse, Glasgow, Fri 26 Sep ●●●●● FOLK POP AVI BUFFALO Broadcast, Glasgow, Mon 6 Oct ●●●●●
ROCK / SHOEGAZE THE TWILIGHT SAD The Pleasance, Edinburgh, Thu 9 Oct ●●●●●
HARDCORE PUNK OFF! King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sun 5 Oct ●●●●●
Songwriter / bassist Howie Reeve rolls into Easterhouse, unleashing his second album, We Are in Repair, upon the world. Reeve exists somewhere between post-punk virtuoso, innovative non-linear avant-gardist, and honest and intimate lyricist. He’s singular and contradictory, his between-song chat hilariously obscene and surreal, the songs warmly poignant, impressionistic glimpses of the human condition. His playing encompasses these
extremes, too; though bass is rarely deployed as a solo instrument, Reeve is a master of its contours, from chiming harmonics to guttural lows, jagged rambunctiousness to mellifluous beauty. Tonight, surrounded by friends, including guest musicians Jenny Bell and Rory Haye, and playing an extra-length set, he’s at his most warm and engaging, twanging heartstrings and funny bones alike. (Matt Evans) ■ See album review, page 78.
Since their fully formed arrival four years ago, this Long Beach outfit have been selective about touring. This well- subscribed show was their first visit to Glasgow and only their second time in Scotland and while it is clear that the stage is not a natural habitat for reticent frontman Avi Zahner-Isenberg, the music makes up for the awkward pauses between songs with its natural fluency.
This is dreamy, soaring, expertly arranged indie pop par excellence, and there are potent moments when the band whip up a storm of crashing keyboard chords and bass rumble, or the undulating piano pushes the set into chamber pop territory. But arguably the performance is
most effective when the band leaves Zahner-Isenberg to his own devices on a couple of solo numbers and, despite the shyness, he holds the room to ransom with his affecting voice, a captivating tune and a resonant guitar backing. No chit-chat required. (Fiona Shepherd)
On the opening night of the Pleasance Sessions, pissing rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of lucid dreamweavers Hidden Orchestra or arch-miserablists the Twilight Sad.
Hidden Orchestra – the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Joe Acheson – built full-strength soundscapes from scratch, with Acheson centrestage like some hipster Wizard of Oz. The contrast is sharp against a
band infamous for their volume. The Twilight Sad roadtest songs from new album Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave, and revisit a few fan favourites. Frontman James Graham delivers his usual dry, entertaining patter. He may consider cuddles ‘a bit emo’, but has no trouble bearing his soul on stage. At points, he’s so self- absorbed, he wanders from the mic, bellows lost in the hazy decibels of Andy MacFarlane’s guitar. An odd, yet compelling pairing at the start of this small and vital festival. (Sam Bradley) ■ See album review, page 76.
OFF! fire short-yet-hardly-sweet salvoes of Cali-punk polemics in multi-song bursts, before Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks) breaks off to discuss everything from US foreign policy to prostate problems. He’s a blunt-force frontman well-suited to Mario Rubalcaba’s unembellished drumming and the frenzied guitarwork of Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides). Despite the well-timed breaks, OFF!
are a steadfastly full-on band, their politically savvy bluster as chaotic as it is catchy. ‘Wrong Way Out’ and ‘Hypnotized’ are furious slabs of classic punk, delivered with vitality and conviction, though even if there might be nostalgia in the eyes of the crowd, there’s none to be found on stage. Morris might be pushing 60 but he has evidently lost none of his righteousness; time has been kind to him, but not to the world, and OFF! show that they’re not the kind of band to let you forget that. (Dave Bowes)
16 Oct–13 Nov 2014 THE LIST 79