Music

Go the Aussies!

Angel Spit – Hideous and Perfect

They call it cyber-punk, and it is certainly not for the faint-hearted, but there is something about this music which brings me back to it again and again. I'm not sure I like it, exactly; none of the individual tunes are favourites, though some are so horrible that I've deleted them from my playlist. Nevertheless, I'm intrigued and I can't stop listening.

Go figure.

The Avalanches – Since I Left You

Another intriguing Aussie: all samples, apparently; not a single "custom" note on the album. The centrepiece is certainly the title track, and the best way to hear that for the first time is to watch the video on YouTube. This is sheer brilliance! The story, the dancing, the acting, are all as good as the music itself. If it hasn't won some kind of mini-Oscar already, it damn well deserves to.

The rest of the album, though, is a bit uneven, and some of the tracks – like Frontier Psychiatrist for example – can be downright irritating if you're not in the mood for them.

But that video....

Sneaky Sound System – 2

On this album, as with its predecessor, SSS fields two vocalists: a guy and a girl. I daresay both sing well enough, but I only like the woman's songs, so, for me, this is half an album. Never mind, with songs like It's Not My Problem, Where do I Begin?, Kansas City and 16, it's not too bad. Not too bad at all.

Kiwi Classics

Die! Die! Die! – Promises Promises

This is "real" punk, so probably best avoided by the faint-hearted. But there are some real treasures here for those with a sense of adventure. Favourite tracks: Whitehorses (of course!), Sideways, Here we Come, and Maybe: Definitely.

Cut Off Your Hands – Blue On Blue

An EP; just four songs but, gosh, what good stuff. A bit like The Kooks, with a dash of The Cure, but neither, really. It's an old-fashioned guitar band playing dance music at 90 mph. If you keep an eye out, you might just see Still Fond or Oh Girl on Juice. There's an album, too, called Shakey Hands.

Bic Runga – Beautiful Collision

Why would anyone buy a Norah Jones CD when, for the same price, they could have Bic Runga’s Beautiful Collision? Beats the hell out of me. Favourite tracks: Get Some Sleep, Listening for the Weather, and the beautiful, haunting Gravity.

Split Enz – Mental Notes

For me, Mental Notes simply IS Split Enz. My all-time favourite album at the time it was released (and still "up there") I just couldn't believe that the band had no more in them. Their second album, Second Thoughts, comprises essentially the same songs (there is just one really decent addition, Matinee Idyll/129) but the Phil Manzanara re-mix is a botch-up, and all of the other-worldly charm of the original recordings has evaporated. Shortly afterwards Phil Judd left the band, so all we were left with were the Finn brothers trading under an assumed name, and the group produced nothing but the unimaginative, derivative crap we've heard from them since. It's all a bit sad, really, but Mental Notes stands as a bright and shining pearl at the beginning of the road, and the subsequent tale of woe does nothing to diminish it. Favourite tracks: Titus, Under the Wheel, and Stranger than Fiction.

Just for Fun

And where would we be without the one hit wonders, then? Some of these are among the truly great, enduring, songs - it's just that the singers and bands who brought them to us, never quite managed much else:

Songs like Whiter Shade of Pale, released around 1960 and you're still as likely as not to hear it on the radio today. Procol Harum was the name of the band which composed and sang it originally, and thank goodness nobody has had the poor taste to essay a remake. Procol Harum had another tiny taste of the top ten with a follow up - Conquistador - but to the best of my knowledge, that was it.

Songs like Something in the Air, from Thunderclap Newman, Love Grows Where my Rosemary Goes by Edison Lighthouse, It Never Rains in Southern California (Albert Hammond), Send Me an Angel (Real Life), I could go on and on.

I guess these folks never made big money, never toured the world; if they were in bands, we probably never even learned their real names. But they made their mark, alright. How would you feel if you'd written ... as the miller told his tale ... maybe, hearing someone humming it forty years later? You've got the music in you. A hundred million of us or more.

All the Rest

Kerli – Love is Dead

The album has had an unfairly rough ride from the critics, in my view. Out of the 12 tracks, I see I’ve marked up a good half of them with either four or five stars, which is a far better strike rate than most of the albums in my collection ever gets, including those from established bands. One pontiff, I noticed, critiqued the diverse styles of the different songs: everything from a lightish metal (I Want Nothing) to trip-hop (Beautiful Day). But I don’t agree. Maybe Ms Koiv just isn’t ready to be type-cast yet. You go girl!

Besides, I think the hint of goth – yes, even on Beautiful Day – provides all the cohesion required to keep it together as an album, rather than “just a bunch of singles” (which was always good enough for John Lennon, anyway, so who are we to argue?) Moreover, it bodes well for Kerli’s ability to keep pumping them out over the next few years. It seems that the second and third albums are the rocks that new artists typically perish on; a broad repertoire might be just the survival mechanism a new artist needs.

Favourite tracks: Love is Dead, with that lovely lilting hook adapted from Rose Royce’s 1978 R&B number, Love Don’t Live Here Anymore; everybody’s favourite, Walking on Air; I’m not much fussed on The Creationist but my daughter loves it; I Want Nothing; Bulletproof; and the Dead Executives collaboration, Beautiful Day.

In summary, it’s a damn fine debut. Buy it, listen to it, and don’t forget to go to YouTube and watch the Walking on Air video. Carefully. The beauty lies in the clever little details, like when she turns on the fan; not the overt “story” which is kind of spooky, but it’s been done before.

Adele – 21

The first track is the very popular Rolling in the Deep which seemed ok. That was followed by something forgettable and forgotten, then the “good track” (it’s a pretty sad album that doesn’t have at least one), Turning Tables, which really is very good. Then there’s some more ho-hum, before the decent Set Fire to the Rain.

Other stuff rounds out the set.

My advice is to wait for it to hit the bargain bins.

Sick of Sarah – Sick of Sarah

B.o.B. – The Adventures of Bobby Ray

Oddly, B.o.B. appears actually able to sing when he puts his mind to it. The tracks Don’t Let Me Fall and Ghost in the Machine are really rather good, and there is no mention of any featured artist helping out on the vocals. B.o.B.’s own work, perhaps?

The whole thing is strangely self-referential; maybe that’s the style of these things. I wouldn’t know. Glad I’ve heard it, but won’t be lining up to buy another any time soon.

Unless Hayley Williams is singing, of course.

Paramore – Brand New Eyes

And that is not to say the other tracks are too shabby, either. From the sleepy Misguided Ghosts to the creepy All I Wanted, this is one excellent album. In fact, the only track which doesn’t work for me is The Only Exception. Despite the neat bridge, which almost seems about to go somewhere, but then doesn’t, I find the beginning and end a bit dreary and repetitive.

Never mind! One bum track on a whole album is nothing to complain about. Best album of 2009 and one of the best bands in its genre. Make sure you buy the version with Decode included as a bonus track.

Kings of Leon – Only by the Night

Florence and the Machine – Lungs

There’s a kind of Celtic tinge to the music, and certainly the lyrics on tracks like Rabbit Heart; a kind of new-agey-ness with Cosmic Love; a weird kind of punk-Vivaldi with Vincent Price thing going on Howl; a pulse-quickening percussion section, intelligent lyrics (Rabbit Heart again, for a few good metaphors, and is that a passing reference to The Matrix?) and it all works for me.

Of course there are some crap tracks as well – Kiss with a Fist will never make it on to my mp3 rotate – but, on the whole, I’m rating Lungs as my best purchase so far in 2010, though I believe it was actually released in 2009.

Favourite tracks: Howl, Rabbit Heart, Cosmic Love, Blinding, You Got the Love.