You're really growing on me

Unfortunately, the new LCD soundsystem album isn't.

I can guaruntee that you won't be seeing a high scoring nicey nicey review on Monday.

Also, there's going to be another review this week. I have the ownership of the only promo copy of Billy Ruffians "My secret life". They're a small Manchester band, so i'll review them as album 2.5.

The war on DRM is starting to heat up. DRM, digital rights management, is the thing that stops you copying songs and such like. It's also what means you can only play songs you buy off iTunes on ipods.
It was announced (a week or so ago) that it's going to be possible to buy high quality, DRM free iTunes songs! You'll even be able to pay to upgrade old songs to DRM free (at a cost).

EMI is the only participating member at the moment, but things can only get better right? The sooner DRM is gone, the better.

Link to the story

Album 2: Maximo park, "Our Earthly Pleasures"

"Our Earthly pleasures" is the Sunderland based Maximo Parks second full length LP, the follow up to "A certain trigger", a storming debut which put the band firmly in the publics mind.

Club favourites "Grafitti" and "Apply some pressure", songs with catchy vocal lines and indie guitars quickly saw the band grow a massive fan base and find fame in both Europe and further abroad, although they have yet to break into America.

One of the things I, and many others, love about Maximo Park are vocalist Paul Smiths use of accent in his vocals. The lead singer fully utilises his North Eastern roots in his vocals, bringing the band a unique and beautifully british sound to their music.

A lot rested on the bands follow up, "our earthly pleasures", as to whether to the band were 1 album wonders or whether they could truely cement their place in the hearts and minds on the record buying public. I'm extatic to report, the band have not let down, and actually managed to supercede a great first album with a follow up to be cherished.

The first single from the album, "Our Velocity", is a keyboard and riff-tastic guitar driven song that races along at the speed of light. An ultimate tune for the indie dance floors, this is one of those songs that is so good, it's going to be on the "best of the 00's" CDs when we're all 50. Having said that, CDs won't exist then, but that's a whole different ball game. It is by far the most instantly catchy song on the album, in the same way "Grafitti" was to "A Certain Trigger".

The song also signalled what the band referred to as a much "heavier" album than the first. Now, I don't think it's possible to qualify Maximo as "heavy", but it's all relative; The album is a more driving and poppy than the first, with a much heavier reliance on crunching guitar chords, as well as considerably greater influence from pianist Lucas Wooler. This is most ceratainly exemplified on one of the best tracks on the album, "Russian Literature". Piano builds up in an epic way along with brilliant vocals, leading to a song with so much dynamic, pace and punch that you want to be able to make every person you've ever met listen to it. "Are you hopeful or just gullable" is belted out with a beutiful harmonised last note in the build up that it gives you shivers down the spine on first listen.

The build up and quite down formula is used quite regularly on this album, for example in "Your Urge", which features brilliant lyrics about one night stands and giving a great social commentary, in a much more subtle way than anything the Arctic Monkeys have ever done. However, it is not overdone, and at no point does the album sound "samey".

Every song on this album has a personality. And each song is good, there are no fillers, but bear in mind some songs take a while to get into. "Karaoke plays" starts off sounding as a very mediocre quiet indie song, and as the 5th track starts to bring a come down on the album. That's for 30 seconds, until the Chorus kicks in, and what a chorus. "Someone gets run down, Kareoke plays somewhere in the background, but there is no explanation" Is sung powerfully to a background of amazingly full sounding guitars, which are loud and abrassive, whilst maintaining the shere beauty of this song. From that point on, the song is seen in a new light, and is simply fantastic.

IT is hard to fault the majority of this album. It really is. It flows perfectly, from the massively pacey song "The Unshockable" with it's into power-drums, to the off-beat and well crafted "A fortnights time", which sees the band experimenting with time changes, and going from high paced guitar to beautiful piano in an instance that blend so well, it shows why the band are as popular as they are.

When this album is heavy, it rocks out with the catchiest of guitar. At all other times, this album is beautiful. This band have one of the best lyricists in any band. And he's one of the best vocalists to boot. Listen to books from boxes as an example.

The album ends with 2 very different songs. "Sandblasted and set free" Initially sounds like this albums attempt at expiremental "the acrobat" from the first album, with the spoken vocals. However, it quickly turns into an emphatic, if not slightly more subdued, track. The song is the closest thing to a ballad on the album, and although the song is the closest thing to a "let down" on the album, it has a chorus that oozes charm and is sure to be a sing-a-long at gigs. Closing track "Parisian Skies" is a nice closing track. But unfortunately it's not more. A slightly darker chorus than the verse leaves the song losing any pull on the listener. Probably the song most reminisent of the previous album, it is the weakest song on the album by a while, but still worth a listen.

This album has been beautifully produced, the band have written beautiful songs. A faultless album that is a must own. These songs are indie-pop at their best, and by pop I don't mean it in the busted sense. Each song has had heart and soul poured into it, with perfectly supporting and flowing bass, lyrics and vocals that will have your ear glued to the speaker wanting to take it in, and piano that makes a much greater impression than in "A Certain Trigger", and this album benefits all the more for it.


8.5/10

Download: Russian Literature, Books from Boxes.
Don't download: N/A

Your urge : Maximo Park (MP3)

www.myspace.com/maximopark
www.maximopark.com

Work relief

http://www.stupidquestions.org/courtroom-humor.htm

Hilarious. I love the USA.

Week 3...

And so, today marks the start of week 3, and review of album number 2, Maximo Park's "Our Earthly Pleasures". Hopefully, I will right the review and put it up tonight for your delectation.

Just been out to buy next weeks album. Difficuly choice, in what seems a lacklustre week for new music. It ended up being between Bloc Party's "A weekend in the city", The Gossips new one, and LCD soundsystem "the sound of silver". The result was the latter. It's going in the player now...

If you're in a bloc mood, head over to Good weather for Airstrikes. It's an ace music blog, especially for new music, but apparantly they've gone mad for the party. Loads of remixs and such like available. One of which is below!

Interesting note. My band, the 100 club, is playing Night and Day next week. And Rich from high voltage is coming! Wooooooooo.

“I Still Remember” (SebastiAn Remix) - Bloc Party (MP3)

ALBUM 1: Yourcodenameis:milo, "They came from the sun"

Right, catch up time. Tomorrow beckons the beginning of week 3, and I've yet to right a review. I may do each album a week in lieu, to give me true absorbtion time. Meaning i'm only slightly behind!

"They came from the sun" is the North Eastern quintets (Sort of) second full long play offereing. I say sort of, as they recently released "Print is Dead volume 1", an album of collaborations with artists like Gordon Moakes (Bloc Party), the Automatic, Lethal Bizzle and Reuben. A quality album, which was recorded simulateneously with TCFTS in their "Like a cat, like a fox" Studios located under a bridge in Byker, named after the original title for first album Ignoto. The boys have built the studio from scratch, begging, borrowing and stealing whatever they can to improve it.

YCNI:M are a band that have progressed far in their time on the music scene. Their first offering, the "All Roads to Fault" E.P., saw them producing some very raw, heavy music with a very stripped back 3guitarsbassdrumsandvocals set up. The E.P. saw some great songs, with great riffs, vocals, and bizarre timings. Best tracks on the play are title track, "All roads to fault" and "fourthree".

With second offering, "Ignoto", the band showed a much more more grown up sound, the quality of which was enhanced by production from FLOOD. This album brought more great riffs (check out single "Schteeve" and "the General"), but saw much bigger sounding songs, showing the benefits time can bring to a band. The album also saw the introduction of a distortion effect on singer Paul Mullens voice, which helped to enhance the songs bulk, bringing further comparisons to bands such as "At The Drive In". The album also saw some quiter, much more experimental tracks such as "Team Radar" and "the Audition", which brought a new sound to the bands musical CV, but was quite a dramatic change which took some adapting to for some fans (including myself).

Current album, "They came from the sun", sees the band produce what I can only describe as a masterpiece. The band recorded and produced the album themselves, with no outside help. For most bands, this would lead to a poor quality album, but YCNI:M have shown great intelligence, and musical apttitude, to produce what is going to be one of the albums of the year.

First track on the album, "Pacific Theatre", starts as the rest of the album goes on. On first listen, All I could think was "what the hell is going on?". But in a good way, as the music is so clever that a song often takes a few listens to even begin to take it in. The main riff in this song, catchy as it is, is almost status quo esque but fused with alt rock at it's best. The song twists and turns, as the beat changes dramatically for the chorus, leading to a truely epic aural experience. This is the sort of music that requires you to sit down, put the album on, and do nothing but listen. This, ladies and gentlement, is intelligent rock at its best.

This album also shows a much greater use of synth and electronic effects in the songs, as shown from tracks "All that was missing" and "I'm leaving". This adds a completely new dynamic to songs, which hasn't been seen before by the band. "I'm leaving" in particular, is a very potent song, making a big use of synth in conjunction with very clever guitar, to create a song which loses none of the classic YCNI:M charm, but is catchy in an almost pop-esque way.

One noticable change on this album is the drumming style. "Ignoto" drummer Paul Gamble Beresford left the band to be replaced by Shaun Abbott, who has clearly stamped his mark on the album in a big way. Whilst elements of the bands trademark querky drum timings can still be found, such as closing instrumental track "Dicta Boelcke", the majority of this albums drums are made up of very simple driving beats. Although it's dissapointing that the drums have lost some of the emphasis in the songs due to their simplicity, they work amazingly on most places in the album. Afore mentioned "All that was missing", and experimental track "Translate", have frankly perfect driving beats that simply make the song. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the drums, although different, do not lower the quality of the songs in any way. The driving beats on this album make it what it is.

"Take to the floor" is probably the straightest song on the album, seeing Paul going into full singing mode in a way not seen since ARTF, and seeing the rest of the band regressing to this period too. Great, clean guitars, brilliant drums, and nice supporting bass.

The latter of the tracks, "Translate", sees the bands create a perfect fusion of old and new, with the use of vocal effects to completely change the way they are used in a song, but with the jerky guitar seen from ARTF. Not one of the most accessible tracks for a casual listener, but definately a grower.

Tracks "I'm impressed", "Evening" and "Screaming ground" see the band produce the best songs to come out of Britain in a very long time. The guitar riffs in "Evening" and "Screaming ground" have to be heard to be beleived. Songs so perfectly written, executed and recorded doesn't happen very often. "I'm impressed" has to be my track of the album, with simply brilliant technical drumming and guitar, leading into a vocal and guitar harmony that just makes the listener want to loop that section of the song over and over again.

People looking to the quieter side of YCNI:M will not be left upset, with "sixfive" producing a beautiful piece of well produced music, which is experimental in many ways, but results in a well rounded track that fits the album, and the band, a lot better than some of the attempts on "Ignoto " did.

First single off the long player is "Understand", which is a very radio-friendly song. Great guitars and vocal hook make this song very listenable, particularly for those who haven't heard the band before. The chorus shows great utilisation of the 3 guitar structure, to produce a quality track.

Let me say now, in summary, this album is brilliant. This is potentially the only album i've ever heard without a single filler or let down. Every single song has something good to listen to, something that will appeal to anyone who likes great music. Most bands hope to write a song of the quality of one of these songs at least once in their career, and YCNI:M has produced an album full of them.

This album far supercedes previous release Ignoto. As good as it was, it felt like it was missing something, and in parts was very "out there". This album is constant and flows. This album feels right. Every song fits in the role it is given, all the bits work together. Listen to the album from start to finish and cherish every second. This is an art piece.

Welcome, the saviours of British music.

The band are on tour around the UK this month.

Score: 9/10

Download: "I'm Impressed", "Screaming Ground"
Don't download: n/a
http://www.yourcodenameismilo.com
http://www.myspace.com/yourcodenameismilo

Translate : Yourcodenameis:milo (MP3)

Post 0: What are you on about man?

52 Weeks, 52 Albums... is pretty self explanatory. Every week, for a year, I will buy/gain ownership of an album. Then I willl review it on here.

Why? Because I love music. I do. I know everyone says it, because it's cool to, or whatever, or blah.... But I do. It's a big part of my life, but yet I don't make nearly enough effort to listen to things. I am a radio 1 listener when I do listen to the radio, and would highly recommend the Colin Murray show to anyone who doesn't know what to listen to. Especially on Tuesdays, with the black hole, where they play content of the net such as demos and remixs and such like.

So yes, its main point is to encourage me to listen to more music. But also to listen to stuff I might not normally.

1 Key point to note: This isn't a "challenge". I won't "Fail" if I miss a week for some reason. IT's just a nice idea, which I will try to keep to.

Also, this isn't exclusively for the 52 albums. I will make a big song and dance about them, but i'll post other bits and pieces on here too. Bands you should check out, news you should know about and such like.

In the mean time, bands you should check out:
Reuben
Yourcodenameis:milo
Biffy Clyro
Dive Dive
3rd Dan
Maximo Park
Hadouken!
Scroobius vs. Pip
The 100 club (shameless plug)
Billy Ruffian
Shmoo

There are a lot more, but that's for another day. The above bands will be thrust upon you in greater detail at a future point. Album 1 is in fact YCNI:Ms "They came from the sun", and Album 2 is Maximo Parks "Our Earthly Pleasures". That's right, I came up with the album idea before the blog. :D.

I will probably be back on here later with more stories to regail. But for now, my work is done.

Samba