Album Reviews

  So Ben Fold Five is a name I have heard quite a few times, and in all honestly I thought they were a soft rock band. This album is more piano driven with jazz elements. In actual facts it reminds me of Rufus Wainwright's Want albums a little. Seems it has been finely crafted song by song to create a kind of musical tapestry, as the title suggests, a sort of story. Perhaps it is an album about searching for identity. I pick up elements of The Beach Boys too on the third song 'Mess'. These are merely first impressions. The lyrics are spoken from the 1st person point of view and sounds like a diary baring all details. The piano parts are expertly played and the drums and bass used sparingly to create a personal and sometimes even orchestral effect using drums usually reserved for classical music. The vocals focus more on melody than lyrics I feel to create a weave of sound which I have read from other reviews makes for a dark sound but what I hear is a bunch of lovely songs,

  I first became aware of Moloko on the Batman and Robin soundtrack which featured the main single from this album, "Fun For Me". It fit so wonderfully on that album of 1997 and I didn't pursue any of the artists on that cd. Then Moloko became famous with songs like 'The Time Is Now' and 'Sing It Back' around the time of the millenium. Now I'm finally checking out her debut from 1995.  And what an album of miscellaneous ideas it is. It's an electronic feast of trip-hop, electronica and sampling. Moloko were a duo of singer of  Róisín Murphy and Mark Brydon, singer and electronic guy, respectably. What they proceed to show off is a nice array of sounds, beats and bleeps with wacky vocals, with small intermissions in between tracks to capture that alt-party vibe that you might expect from the 90's. It's largely a happy affair and funny that they released this on the Roadrunner Records, who were more involved with rock and metal music, althoug

  As you might have guessed most of these reviews are of artists the reviewer has never listened to before, at least from an album perspective. I find cheap albums in charity shops, come home and take it in. For Bon Iver, I first bought his '22, A Million' first and out it aside and then saw this album which is his debut. Having spent four months in a cabin during winter, the man known as Justin Vernon, put this opus together, and I must say it is wonderful - full of space. Just his falsetto and a guitar in the most part sometimes mixed up with effects and other vocal layers, it reminds me quite strongly of Ben Howard's 2011, 'Every Kingdom', although this seems more meditative and calmer. It seems that this was a university student favourite and considered something of a break-up record, because of it's sonorous moans and muted excitement. And yet it comes more from not a romantic break-up but from the break-up of the artist's previous band DeYarmond Edison

Nerina Pallot is a solo artist who has released a few albums in the past. Many fans say her previous work is much better than this album but I find that this one to my newbie ears is a very good album. For sheer songwriting and singing ability, Nerina, who is of half-Indian, half-French descent, has created a likable record and one which will leave you feeling quite intruiged. The songbird seems to be in a stage in her life where she has found love and a lot of songs are about this. I don't usually listen to a lot of female solo artists but the first three songs, 'Put Your Hands Up', 'Turn Me On Again', and 'All Bets Are Off', are very popdelicious and perk up your curiousity. Unlike Keane's Under The Iron Sea the music keeps coming, but there is a palpable light airy feeling to her voice which somehow doesn't connect with me. I can't quite place it but upon finishing this excellent album I was filled with an emptiness and feeling of loss but in

  Add caption This, Keane's 2nd album album, is a less hit-ridden affair but the songs are almost equally strong. I am currently half-way through it with 'Put It Behind You' which is starting to slightly grate on me. I enjoyed the first 5 songs but then 'Hamburg Song' came on and it isn't very enjoyable. There's nothing to really grab you and some say Keane make more intelligent music than Coldplay but that is debatable. Sure, there is more spacey keyboard playing but do the means justify the end if all we get is a pretty boring ride of sound of 12 songs. I'm afraid they really are a 2nd rate Coldplay, as the enjoyment....wait, Crystal Ball has just come on and I really like the chorus, I even seem to remember it being on the radio all that time ago. My mum's verdict has said that 'Coldfeet' have a more serious sound, whereas Keane are more light which is strange as I don't think of happiness when I remember the dirges almost they produce

  I remember when I was recording some demos with my band around 2004/5 and the studio engineer was banging on about Keane's album being marvelously produced. Apart from that we all heard their singles on the radio and to be honest I didn't take a liking to it then but listening to the album today for the first time I must say that despite being frontloaded with the hits at the beginning gets a good flow going and I can see why a lot of people have praised this album. Tom Chaplin's vocals are very good if not amazing and the problem for me with the three-piece is that they are too low key, a bit too perfect, which makes the music quite boring.It's definitely a light kind of pop and the lyrics are not terribly deep but they don't need to be with this type of music. Yes there are some similarities with Coldplay but not having a guitar makes the songs less hook driven and quite a lot more introverted. There are some similiarities with 90's chill out music which I h