[review originally written for Heavy Soil]Ben Folds has lost his earNot a single song on Way To Normal, released yesterday (in the UK; today in the states) is truly memorable. Not a single chorus could I convincingly sing back to you, right now.Opener 'Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head)' establishes a pattern: it's well-produced, along interesting lines: studio-recorded parts are combined with l
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A vague theme of uncompromising sonic aesthetic has run through my listening this past week, even though the five songs I've chosen to write about on my blog are, on the face of it, rather diverse: Nirvana's You Know You're Right - recorded in the band's final sessionDeerhoof's crazy, time-sig-shifting, bipolar lullaby-meets-nightmare Milk ManDresden Dolls' breakneck, triangulating Girl Anachronis
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Imagine a lo-fi, countrified, battery-operated Portishead. Right? Easy. Now, add a dusting of insouciant Damon Albarn (bear with me), the alt-rock nursery-rhyme quality of Eels, and, finally, a seasoning of late 80s/early 90s synth-pop.Got that?Possibly not. But I've made one point, at least: Ultralash is quite an unusual-sounding outfit.*Lads' mag alt-folk?*It's an odd name, for starters. __Ultra
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Beth Gibbons has an excellent, extraordinary voice.This does __not__ mean "she sounds nice when she sings"; "she has the 'voice of an angel'", or "she'd do a mean aria".It means: she sings, and you listen. She sings, and she communicates. In my view, she has one of the most distinctive, affecting, expressive voices in modern music. (What a horrible phrase - "modern music".) Listening to her sing a
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Vetiver's new record, __Thing of the Past__, is out on 13 May. Unlike the band's previous two albums, this one is not built around original material, but is a collection of cover versions.Perhaps fittingly (given this fact, and the album's title), it's a nostalgia-tinged collection, infused with gentle melancholia and a slight weariness. The majority of the songs are slow to mid-tempo, steady, aco
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It's not immediately obvious how to approach Eels' latest collections. And the last word of that opening sentence gives a clue as to why this might be.__Meet the Eels__ presents - in chronological order - the 'best of' the band's output over the past decade or so. A reasonably conventional 'greatest hits'-type affair. Released simultaneously - although not necessarily bundled with __Meet the Eels_
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What is it about Will Oldham that seems to render so compelling any song on which he appears? His voice is immensely full of character, of course. But I think there is something more important still: the simple intensity of his performance."Performance" is, I think, key. Music recording technology allows musicians to splice together takes, "punch in" a re-recorded version of a vocal phrase that...
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