Alterbridge - ABIII

Alter Bridge have crafted one of the best rock records of 2010. AB 3 is the bands first ever concept album. As far as I'm aware, it is a concept based around the Bands' struggle in terms of faith and religion. The concept is about a man who loses hope and his faith in God, the song "Wonderful Life" is a beutiful yet sad song about the character's wife dying of disease. I'm the kind of musician that likes to portray and emotion or theme through my guitar playing or songwriting or any other instrument etc. So this album really does it for me in that in that respect. Overall, the tone and vibe of the album is a lot more dark and aggressive and sounds like a progression from their previous album 'Blackbird'. So basically if you were a big lover of AB's heavy and aggressive riff's much like the songs "Come To Life" or "One By One" you're gonna love this album. What took me by surprise in 'Blackbird' was the fact that frontman Myles Kennedy decided to pick up his guitars a lot more which really changed the way songs were written as oppose to the 'One Day Remains' album where the majority of guitar parts were written by guitar extroardinaire, Mark Tremonti. In AB 3 Myles has decided to join Mark Tremonti as guitar extroardinaire. There is definitely a balance between who plays a guitar a solo in this album, but it has been really been an opportune moment for Myles to shine by tearing his guitar to pieces! A lot of people haven't heard him play like this since back in the days of The Mayfield four! The guitar playing is definitely a lot more intricate in this album especially for Myles. A brilliant record and most probably going to be the best rock record to be released this year with no obvious contenders in the near future or past.

New Bands - 05/11/10

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
How to Destroy Angels
The Sounds
The Hold Steady

New Bands - 2/11/10

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
Titus Andronicus
Attack Ships On Fire
The Pheremones

Come Around Sundown - Kings Of Leon

If you were expecting another follow up to KOL's big success album 'Only By The Night' then you have not been up to date with any music press, Caleb Followill recently described their massive hits "a pile of ****" and the band have declined popular tv shows and films from using their music on their soundtracks the most notable being the dreadful show called Glee. Come Around Sundown is not an easy record, it can be abrasive on the ears and overloaded with ideas, noise, melody and rhythm constantly colliding and reconfiguring, but it’s confidence is immediately gripping, and as it emerges into the light it begins to sound ever more splendid. Youngest brother Jared’s clubby, rolling, stop-start basslines underpin everything, locking tight with eldest sibling Nathan’s subtly nimble, percussive drum patterns. Cousin Matthew flies over the top with staccato riffs and echoing licks, his range of tones and effects beginning to rival the sci-fi atmospherics of U2’s the Edge. At the centre is Caleb, seeking meaning in elliptical memories, his imagery veers between the poetically opaque and heart-wrenchingly direct, his voice angst-ridden, frayed, lost and lonesome. Raised to follow in his preaching father’s footsteps, Caleb sings like it’s not just a matter of life and death, it’s more serious than that. The themes of the album are all issues related to things going on in the band's life according to recent interviews and the idea was to get rid of all the mainstream fans who think KOL are about songs like 'Sex on Fire and Use Somebody" and to begin the transition back to previous albums and what they call the real Kings Of Leon. This album is the start of that movement with only one song that has the same feel as 'OBTN' which is Radioactive. All in all a good album that takes a few listens to grow and become enjoyable.

New Bands 17/10/10

River City Rebels
Avi Buffalo
Wild Nothing
Mona

Band Profile - Amusement Parks On Fire

Amusement Parks On Fire are a Shoegaze band from Nottingham, England. The band was formed by Michael Feerick in 2004, who wrote and performed all the instruments for the self-titled debut album. The band now performs as a five-piece group. The band began as the solo project of Michael Feerick in 2004, who wrote and recorded nine songs on a small budget with friend Daniel Knowles engineering the sessions. The self-titled debut album was released in 2005. The band recorded and released their second album in the same year along with a load of special edition EP's. The line-up altered to its current state in summer 2006 with the addition of Gavin Poole (Bass) and Joe Hardy (Keyboards). This was followed by a co-headline tour of the UK with US noise outfit Scarling. and a headline tour across mainland Europe and Scandinavia. The band recently played a short UK tour and debuted some new material, and are currently in Nottingham recording new material for a possible release in 2008. In addition, they are currently playing some small live shows across the UK and Ireland, and mostly travelling by train.

Band Profile - White Lies

White Lies are a band from Ealing, in West London. Formerly known as Fear of Flying, the band consists of 3 members and a touring keyboard player. Formed in October 2007 after feeling the songs that they had written didn't suit there other bands. They delayed their first ever public performance to build media hype, and they earned a record deal with Fiction Records after their first ever public performance. They made their television debut on the 30th of May 2008 making their brand of British Alternative Rock known to a larger audience. A band that has been cross labelled as Dance Indie, Indie-Pop. They have been compared to bands such as Franz Ferdinand, Joy Division, Interpol, Editors, but have cited themselves to be more uplifting.

A good British Alternative Band well worth a listen.

Album - To Lose My Life
Sounds Like - Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Talking Heads.

Allo Darlin- Allo Darlin

Allo Darlin’ is the performing name of Elizabeth Morris (and band), who moved to London from Australia in 2005. They have become a new staple of London’s indie-pop carousel thanks to her prowess at crafting simple but thoroughly affecting and mature songs on the ukulele. If anything, it seems that the instrument’s pick-up-and-play accessibility has made the songs exactly that – accessible. Simplicity results in a clear, emotional and heartfelt album. Morris is affectionate to the city that bore the album, but constantly aware that there’s much more in the world to discover. The album’s most heartfelt moment, Let’s Go Swimming, She describes a lake in Sweden and then reels off a list of London stereotypes that couldn’t possibly compare to it. “All of the hipsters in Shoreditch could never style it,” is the line that rings most truthfully here, but the whole song is lovingly rendered, caked in gliding slide guitar and feathery bass. A well produced track. Though inevitable comparisons to fellow Aussies The Lucksmiths and The Go-Betweens will undoubtedly accompany Allo Darlin’ wherever they are heard, they are possessive of something quite different to those bands. Having hailed partly from another country and inhabited London, they have the benefit of being able to step back from these locales and comment more widely on those themes of loneliness and inability to fit in. The boldest of those themes, perhaps, is a sense that their professional endeavours are shortlived when they could be earning a packet doing something else. Not that you’d be worried about when they’re making it sound so wonderfully bright and easy. Weighing up lyrical unease with musical joie de vivre is a sure-fire way to involve the listener, and the struggle of part-time musicians it ably references rings true. Between the bounce of the lighter numbers and the ache of the sweet ones, there’s all manner of winningly realistic insights veiled underneath the music. This debut is a joy from beginning to end, a fully-formed talent at the first attempt – as rare as it is welcome.

Invented - Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World are pioneers of emo – that melodious, sentimental brand of American indie rock that has swept the globe in the past decade. Yes, Jimmy Eat World have always been sentimental: they tug on the heart strings with yearning melodies that pound you into sniveling submission. But, crucially, they also know how to rock out. Their breakout albums Clarity and Bleed American made you reach for the tissues one minute and then jump with fist-pumping joy the next. For kids who care about credibility, that’s a key distinction. With success came cash, though; cash that has been used in the studio to smooth out the rough edges. Listening to Jimmy Eat World has always been easy, but in recent years it’s got a little too easy. Nothing has blown the ears back, even if the choruses have still, technically, been strong. For Invented, then, it’s exciting to hear that Mark Trombino, who produced Jimmy’s breakthrough discs, is back at the helm – even if that news is tempered by the process: the band recorded tracks in their studio in Arizona and then emailed them to Trombino in California. Trombino has done his best here to reinvigorate the Jimmy Eat World sound and put a bit of the heaviness back. On My Best Theory (the lead single) and Action Needs an Audience, he’s made the throbbing riffs fresh and aggressive again. Trombino has also brought back the sparkle to songs that could have died on their backsides: the acoustic guitars on opener Heart Is Hard to Find sound crisp and vital; Coffee and Cigarettes’ plain melody is driven forward by bringing the bass up high in the mix; and, best of all, Evidence broods menacingly before exploding into a glorious burst of distortion. Doubts creep in during the quieter moments. Cut, Invented and Mixtape all work fine – they all have blissful harmonies and delicate choruses – but they represent nothing new. They are over-familiar Jimmy Eat World formulae rehashed. They are songs that look backwards, not forwards. 

Seven albums in, Jimmy Eat World are still going strong, and Invented is an enjoyable record. But it also fails to dispel the concern that the band’s well of ideas is about to run dry.

Review From BBC Music Reviews Mike Haydock

Full Review

New Bands 04/10/2010

White Lies
Cymbals Eat Guitars
Animal Collectives
Wild Beasts
Deas Vail
The Dirty Guv’nahs

New Reviews

The focus of this blog is to provide my take and analysis on new albums, not all reviews are written by me, but all reviews posted are ones which promotes the conclusion closest to my own. I will also be sharing more new and upcoming artists who I think are worth the time. First review and selections will be up soon.