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Reviews of the latest indie music

The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night Review

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 23:08

A fine third album

Long-time stars of the Canadian indie-rock firmament, at The Besnard Lakes’ core is husband-and-wife duo Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek, creators of 2007’s …Are The Dark Horse album, an alternately intimate and grandiose set which clocked in at a svelte 45 minutes. With …Are the Roaring Night they delve deeper into the glittering soundscapes that have become synonymous with their sound; sacrificing something of the warmth that marked their previous work, they nonetheless emerge with a thoroughly impressive, coherent whole.

High on Fire Snakes for the Divine Review

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 23:00

Tight, concise and thrillingly sharp

As BBC4’s recent Heavy Metal Britannia suggested, mainstream culture as a whole is moving wholesale towards an acceptance – if not a fundamental understanding – of all things beefy and loud.

The Automatic Tear the Signs Down Review

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 22:38

This could well be one of the most disappointing albums of 2010

Sympathy is due, in some measure, to The Automatic. A spunky first album with a single that became inescapable in 2006 – Not Accepted Anywhere and Monster, respectively – was followed by a realisation of their promise to get ‘harder’ on second album This Is a Fix – an underrated sophomore effort which received little promotion compared to its predecessor.

New Young Pony Club The Optimist Review

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 22:29

A triumphant LP

Before hitting play on The Optimist, there's a fear that it's going to be a less timely rehearsal of New Young Pony Club's 2007 debut. And while the fever of that LP came from its direct rip of the early 80s, its aloof riot-starting propensities and conscious eclecticism became listless by the third playback.

Titus Andronicus The Monitor Review

Monday, 08 March 2010 21:12

Lives up both to its rebellious, riotous ambition and its rich musical heritage

Bruce Springsteen has enjoyed something of a renaissance recently. Not just in terms of his own career, which has once again flourished since 2002’s The Rising, but through a number of bands who are carrying the torch he first lit on E Street all those years ago. From The Killers to Arcade Fire, The Hold Steady to The Gaslight Anthem, this recent surge of Boss-inspired sounds has taken various forms, but nobody has approached it with quite the iconoclastic zeal of Titus Andronicus.

Last Updated ( Monday, 08 March 2010 21:21 )

Fear Factory Mechanize Review

Monday, 08 March 2010 21:00

A powerful statement

Although Mechanize is Fear Factory’s third studio album since they officially disbanded in 2002, it’s crucially different from its immediate predecessors. Both Archetype (2004) and Transgression (2005) were controversially written and recorded without founding guitarist Dino Cazares, the main victim of 2002’s acrimonious split. The reconstituted Fear Factory may have featured three-quarters of the classic line-up, but without Cazares, they were fatally flawed. With Cazares back, however, the band are back on track, as Mechanize forcefully demonstrates.

Turin Brakes Outbursts Review

Monday, 08 March 2010 20:39

Overly familiar and sadly nondescript

This, their first studio album since 2007’s Dark on Fire, continues Turin Brakes’ folk-infused journey from the southern end of London’s Northern Line. Since their emergence via the spuriously labelled ‘new acoustic movement’, alongside Kings of Convenience, in 2001, they have been occasionally written off as insubstantial, despite their albums suggesting otherwise. Following the more band-orientated atmospheres of recent releases, Outbreaks is stripped back to the core duo of school friends Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian.

Liars Sisterworld Review

Monday, 08 March 2010 20:20

Perhaps their masterpiece

Liars have been making music for a decade, and while they were initially seen as part of the post-Strokes malaise of bands to check out, they sit mch more on the extreme side of the musical landscape – they were always more Pussy Galore and Sonic Youth than skinny-jeaned new-wave revival.

Broken Bells Broken Bells Review

Sunday, 07 March 2010 22:17

A sweet’n’sour and head-spinningly trippy set

The word "psychedelic" is one of those phrases – like "genius", "edgy" and "Pete Doherty arrested" – which has become somewhat devalued by over-use. Yet it certainly suits this collaboration between The Shins frontman James Mercer and studio maverick Brian ‘Danger Mouse’ Burton – a short (barely 37 minutes), sweet’n’sour and head-spinningly trippy affair.

The Kissaway Trail Sleep Mountain Review

Sunday, 07 March 2010 22:00

An album of such emotional weight

It’s been three years since The Kissaway Trail’s beguiling eponymous debut, and in that time the Danes have simplified their sound. Maturity has focused their vision, and this is both good and… not bad as such, just a shame.

Sleep Mountain shimmers throughout. The quintet has gone for big, they’ve gone for anthemic, and they’ve pulled it off. Perhaps touring with Editors has made a difference – there’s certainly a streamlined feel to this album, and a cohesion, that the band’s debut lacked. It could well push them on to Editors-sized sales and stages.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 07 March 2010 22:09 )

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