Wills? Ok, then...

So I sit here in post university limbo and somehow have ended up watching the American made story of Prince William's love life thanks to my dear sister.

I could go into detail on how horrible it is. But I won't.

Instead I've downloaded Biffy Clyro's b-side album from the "Puzzle" era and thus am engaging in a nostalgia fest of sorts.

In reality, it's pretty bad as well. Skipping between the earnest lo-fi of their earlier days and throwaway jangly pop rock it's an odd amalgamation that hints at former glory. There is definitely something endearingly playful about, a side of the band completely absent from their current modus operandi, with some standout moments that wouldn't be out out of place on The Vertigo Of Bliss (Miracle of Survival being a more memorable instance).

All in all, for a b-side album it's quite respectable really and compared to the farcical nature of their more recent output it gives some indication that the band are still capable of making the quirky songs that they were so beloved for prior to their explosive mainstream play.

To summarise. I know it's bad but it's a welcome collection of songs that almost present an alternative timeline to the major label success.

Currently on download is the b-side album for their most current album. I'm intrigued to see if this continues the same trend of keeping the "old" biffy alive...

Where am I?

Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?

I started off really disliking this album. Every song sounded like it was just an amalgamation of the microkorg's arpeggiator presets with nothing original or interesting happening anywhere.

I changed my mind. While I still hold that there is an element of that going on here, there's also a lot more on show. Perhaps cause it's midnight and I'm in a more agreeable state or for some other reason but the previously boring montages of obvious arpeggios now sound rich and emotional. The sound world is vast and nothing competes for attention, everything sits neatly in the mix, living out it's natural life cycle then disappearing for something else to become the natural and subtle heir to the listener's attention.

Yeah, thumbs up. Not particularly attention grabbing but given the right setting, positioning of the hands on the clock and perhaps correct ingested substances, this album could be a more than worthy companion.

C'mon

I hold a lot of respect for Low. They've been making beautiful music for many more years than most bands could hope to stay intact. 2007's Drums and Guns was a veritable masterpiece and a marked move away from the majority of their back catalogue which stuck fairly rigidly to the slowcore drums, bass, guitar and two part harmonies. Before that came The Great Destroyer, another move away from their trademark in favour of a more traditionally "rock" sound. Following these two releases comes their new album, C'mon, and it's as if these two albums never happened. The cover art gives some clue as to what's happened here. Gone is the change up of style and they appear to have been inspired by touring to retreat back to what's familiar, the natural sounds of their core live components.

This is not to say that the resulting music is inferior but I do wonder if they've slipped back into what was beginning to seem like somewhat of a rut. Admittedly, "rut" implies a lack of motivation and ability to create consistently moving music, attributes Low are certainly not lacking. Perhaps Sparhawk and co have made a decision to leave the instrumentation exploration to side projects such as The Hospital People but the inner cynicism is still prodding me with accusations of retreating into the safety of the sound world they established for themselves in the 90s.

In practical terms, there's a new set of Low songs brimming with the exact qualities that make them such a treasure and it's hard to complain too much about that. Apart from the banjo on "Witches". I fucking hate banjos.

Here's something to lighten the mood:

From now I think I'll be attempting to do some small review of an album I listen to each day, followed by something horrific from /b/.

Spin on my cock.

So spin magazine. They're taking the piss.

99% of their album reviews are either 7/8 out of 10. The other 1% are 6/9. What's the fucking deal? How is this useful to anyone? Or is it some statement about the subjectivity of music criticism, giving everything the same middling to high mark to highlight that everything is good in it's own way? I call bullshit.

Is this a trend? Are reviewers so scared to speak up when they think something is truly terrible? More likely is that people won't criticise a vaguely positive review whereas a negative review is a fine balancing act with public image for these sites. For example, the first online review for Radiohead's "The King Of Limbs" by a major publication was a one listen stream of thought blurt by Tim Jonze of the Guardian, proclaiming it a bland affair from a band going through the motions. This was met with nothing but hostility leading the way for a legion of middling to high reviews from other journalists. Spare me.

The one review I did find below 6 on spin (but only stretching to a 5) was for the new Cold War Kids album. Yes, apparently they're still around. I went to see them in Glasgow on monday and was truly shocked that a band I previously thought was a hobbling one hit wonder outfit still had such a large and loyal fan base. All around me was a mob of giddy fans, singing along and praising these four weedy looking men. Pretty soon I started to feel like an Atheist in a catholic church... As they reeled off song after song from the new album, I couldn't help notice a glaring similarity appear. Those bland melodies... That inoffensive verse bridge chorus repeat... ah ha! Kings of Leon! Sure enough, the producer of their new turd of an album is the same man responsible for Kings of Leon's last two turds of albums. Lovely. Jacquire King, you're ruining bands. Stop it.

Despite the audience's blind lapping up of everything that the Kids sent their way, it was quite telling that the biggest cheers and, frankly, far superior performances came from the older songs in the back catalogue such as Hang Me Up To Dry, We Used To Vacation and Hospital Beds. Amidst the bland newer material these songs hinted at the one thing that had made Cold War Kids an interesting outfit back in '06, the raw production. Unfortunately for them, that doesn't translate so well to the Garage in Glasgow... I did feel a well and truly obnoxious sense of superiority on leaving the venue, overhearing many uninformed Glaswegians proclaiming it the best concert they've ever been to. Yeah, I'm a dick... but I'm also right. Suck it, bitches.

This reminded me how much I hate audiences... yet I keep going to concerts? Hmm. Maybe the audiences at Primavera will be more bearable? Unlikely.

Last thing. Lighting at gigs is really shit. Almost always. If I had my way, all lighting at concerts would be solely white.

There's a new Radiohead album. We'll be able to listen to it on saturday.

Fin?

Hello.

So there's a new Bright Eyes album on it's way called "The People's Key".

You can listen to it here: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/30/133278431/first-listen-bright-eyes-the-peoples-key

Or you can download it "illegally" like any sensible person.

Or you can go about your business and pretend this didn't happen.

So far, the jury is out on which of the above you should choose. The release statement from the label is kind of hilariously superlative. Claiming it's definitely, without doubt the best thing Bright Eyes have ever released and they're definitely not just saying that because it's the new one. Mhmm.

At the moment... I'm not convinced. There's a bad case of "kitchen sink" going on with the production. Overall the album feels somewhat schizophrenic with the only constant element being Oberst's heavily multitracked vocals, every song experiencing a completely different treatment to the one before it. Another listen or two could reveal the genius behind this but I can't silence the voice in the back of my head telling me it's not working.

Thread.

So on monday last week I sat down with an acoustic guitar and recorded some sounds for a composition I'd been thinking about for a little while.

Based on the claustrophobia of Penderecki's Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima it kind of ended up different to what I'd anticipated. Initially I'd wanted longer slides and a load of unified grotesque clusters. Turns out the technique I was using lent itself a lot better to a more chaotic arrangement.

In any case, it turned out to be quite intense. Which is good.

It's on soundcloud.

http://t.co/M7BW67l

It's quiet. Probably best not to listen to it on laptop speakers or in a noisy environment.

She & Him

So that new She & Him album that's not really new at all but I just listened to it? Yeah, that one.

I listened to it.

It's fun and all but I can't help thinking that Zooey Deschanel would be better off leaving behind an era of music that's been exhausted and just focus more on making stellar appearances in my dreams. Not to mention that her voice seems to constantly and unintentionally flirt with the idea of slipping out of tune whilst hiding inconspicuously behind an unnecessary expanse of hallverb.

Credit where credit's due: the song's are well-written. If incredibly dull when subjected to any kind of attentive listening.

Pretty sure she's a cunt in "real-world" as well but... I honestly don't know where I'm going with this.


Here's something from 4chan:





I should sleep.

You will never die, but I might.

First post.

"Judging by the name, one might imagine Mogwai’s latest, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, was going to come from a post-rock band ready to embrace their punk influences, releasing a snarling beast of an album full of tunes waiting to reach into the ears and rip off the heads of all those not hardcore enough to heed its call.

Instead, the band has released probably its most subdued yet; more focused on texture than energy. Mogwai uses the interplay of timbres as much as the melodies to make their effect, and the result is a richly nuanced album that, while lacking in the moments of unhinged glory the band specializes in, still packs an emotional wallop and an engaging listen from start to finish." - antiquiet

I think this quote shows enough to display how... well... wrong this writer at antiquiet is. Not to say that band's can't change radically at later stages in their career but even the most casual of Mogwai spectators would be hard pressed to have missed the playfully sarcastic nature of the band's titling process and make any literal connections between title and substance (did anyone expect Happy Songs For Happy People to be an outing in major key songwriting joy?). While not completely off the mark with his later comments, one does wonder whether this reviewer was in the same room while the album was playing at times. Sure, some of the album is subdued but you'd be hard pressed to find more danceable tracks anywhere in their back catalogue. I'll eat my shite if you can show me anything that matches the straightforward romping of Mexican Grand Prix, San Pedro or George Square Thatcher Death Party.

(Not really)

The reviewer from Sputnik seems to have taken a similarly lax approach to his listening, claiming it to be lacking in more inspiration than if they had stuck to post-rock-by-numbers. Not that my intention is to point out all the ignorance of other misguided reviewers (or pleasure the rectum of an assortment of already well liked bands) but it all seems rather odd. Perhaps I'm missing something. Perhaps my definitions of words like "subdued" and "vocals" are wrong. Or maybe some people just equate to no more than goose genitals.

Mindless critic bashing aside, this new Mogwai album does exhibit a different approach to previous efforts. Rather than repeating their previous mode of thematic development, here they prefer to meditate and alter rather than add, mutiply and ejaculate in a wall of noise. That's not to say the album is bereft of the staple Mogwai moments (closer You're Lionel Ritchie wouldn't be out of place on a number of previous releases) but this album demonstrates the band exploring different ways to create whilst maintaining their identity.

Unfortunately, this is not always as coherent as it could be. When considered as a whole, the juxtaposition between subdued restraint and up-beat seems sometimes at odds (San Pedro following Death Rays being the example that springs to mind). More than that though, there's just something here that stops me from feeling like I'm experiencing an engaging piece of work unfold. Yes, I'm romanticising the notion of an album as a whole but what's wrong with that?

This point aside, there is much to gain from a listen or many more. These tracks are as sonically rich as you would expect and the methods on show used to achieve this vary substantially. Despite many claiming Mogwai have been going through the motions for the last few records, it seems wholly unfair to deny them credit for the painstaking aural sculpting they put into every track.

Serious face off: I bum Mogwai big times. I sat in the booth next to several members at Nice n Sleazys once and felt like a teenage girl with a boycrush all over again. I'm not proud.

In other news, it's a sad state of affairs that when I download a .rar I sigh and feel a surge of unreasonable annoyance when I'm impolitely informed I need a password. Sure all music is free now but there is a pang of self loathing when you realised you just asked yourself "Do I really want to steal this album enough that I'm willing to spend 30 seconds looking for a password?".

And yeah, this is my first real person blog. Apologies. If it doesn't get better I'll stop. Promise.

(This is likely)