Annuals: Be He Me - Album Review

There is something refreshingly original, nostalgic and artistic to everything when embarking on the Annuals journey. This is a grown-up and refreshing album from the 6-piece band of North Carolina. And what's amazing is that no one in the band is over 22 years old.

The album opens with Brother, crickets in the background before a slow gentle guitar creeping in with violins before blasting into an energetic frenzy with all sorts of synthesizer noises coming in. A great introduction.

I've never been a fan of what is referred to as "experimental" or electronic beeps and strange computer whines infiltrating my headphones. However, with the Annuals, it fits in perfectly.

"The Annuals infuse their music with an array of intense emotions" per their website and I couldn't agree more. You get the whole gamut in this album.

Dry Clothes is a brilliant showcase for the variety you are to enjoy as the album progresses. From Adam Baker's friendly singing to shouts of glee, screams and back to the sweet slower version. And about 3 or 4 rhythm changes along the way.

BROTHER



I was presented with this album by someone who said "As far as quality of music is concerned, they are as good as Arcade Fire ". My first impression was to disagree. However, having now listened numerous times, I have found myself enjoying it just as much. Some reviews have compared their sound with the Montrealers, but I feel they are very different. With the Annuals you get a less frenetic and more calm side before having to "ride the storm".

There is no weak track on the album. Each one compliments each other. My favourite is Complete, or Completing with it's introductory piano, brilliant hoof-like woodblock percussion and the chorus:

"Silence all the clocks tonight
It's show time, with drinks to spill
Hear my mouth, I've got the sounds
to send you back home with peace of mind"

Ida, My shows the slower, laid back side of Adam's voice, before a flurry of electro-beats, rhythmical blurps and beeps hit in creating two completely different halves of the song.

Father, the most touching and melancholy song of the album is about a father losing a child asking:

"What debt has my boy to pay?
What crime has been to deserve this fate?
Lord, What debt has my boy to pay?"

I could go on. In fact there is so much put into this album that I could dissect each song at length, but I'll leave that to you.

As screamed at the beginning of Carry Around:
"I got magic in my head, magic up my nose, magic coming out my fingers, magic crying out my eyes. I've got magic everywhere I fucking look. I can't fight it either, I wish I could." I sure hope that magic returns and will look forward to their next instalment.

Overall, a brilliant album for those of us who are looking for something slightly different, unique and emotional.



Track listing:
1. Brother
2. Dry Clothes
3. Complete, or Completing
4. Carry Around
5. Chase You Off
6. Bleary-Eyed
7. Fair
8. Bull, and the Goat
9. Mama
10. Ida, My
11. Father
12. Sway

Annuals website: www.annualsmusic.com/
Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/annuals
Free song: Bleary Eyed
Other free media: www.annualsmusic.com/audiovideo.php

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Some Loud Thunder - Album Review

Brooklyn band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah return to release their second album Some Loud Thunder. Their self-titled debut was very well received after some rave reviews.

First impressions are not good. The opening title song is simply too distorted to be enjoyable. It sounds like it could be a good or even great song, but the continual blasts in your ears simply make it painful to listen to. Bizarrely, it's intentional. Big mistake in my books. However, they did the same with their circus announcer opener of the last album and in time I got over that. It's sad skipping the opening track every time - as I do with their previous album, but the rest partly makes up for it.

This album doesn't have the same sort of sing-along, catchiness to it and is a somewhat darker, more dense compilation. There are still some great tracks and they have experimented with their sound but what made their debut great was their all out energy, speed and application of themselves. I believe they have lost some of these ingredients at parts here.

Following the ear-bashing opener, is Emily Jean Stock with it's light strumming and Alec's voice accompanied by high pitched backing vocals and then Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air and Burning? another slower, more "down to earth" track.

My personal favourite from this album is Satan Said Dance. With it's dancy, beepy, electronic assistance, with it's bizarre sing-along chorus, it makes it a track which I can listen to over and over. In fact on short car trips, it's the only one I listen to.

When listening to the first album I had to get used to the singers voice. This time I don't. And while obviously I've gotten familiar with it, but also there is less of what critics call the "over-wavering nasal singing" that was on their debut.

Goodbye to Mother and the Cove follows in the vein of the slower, downbeat trend through most of the album.

Yankee Go Home most sounds like it belongs on their first album. An energetic, riff-laden theatrical effort. It also has lines ending in words that use Alec's wail the most effectively.

The 2 pre-final songs are more life-like, enjoyable and upbeat but then it the experience is let down by the finale Five Easy Pieces with Alec dragging out words with an annoying cave-like echo. While the lyrics make a nice poem, the song is simply a drag to listen to.

Overall there are some good tracks, a couple of very good tracks, some ok and some duds. If you are expecting a fantastic album after all the hype, you may be in for a disappointment. If you are simply interested in which direction they have taken, then you may like it, but I would think many would be disappointed. Unfortunatley, I am somewhat.



Track listing:
1. Some Loud Thunder
2. Emily Jean Stock
3. Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air and Burning?
4. Love Song No.7
5. Satan Said Dance
6. Upon Encountering the Crippled Elephant
7. Goodbye to Mother and the Cove
8. Arm and Hammer
9. Yankee Go Home
10. Underwater (You and Me)
11. Five Easy Pieces

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah website: www.clapyourhandssayyeah.com
Free MP3s (legit): Love Song No. 7
Underwater (You and Me)
Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/clapyourhandssayyeah

Blanche: What This Town Needs - EP Review

Husband and wife team Dan and Tracee Miller head up Blanche, a Detroit alternative country rock band. The band have various other activities and interests such as Jack Lawrence's bass playing with the Raconteurs, Dan and Tracee's roles in the movie Walk The Line as Luther Perkins and wife, and Tracee's artwork which sells very well on her website.

Blanche's stated mission is: "To create, maintain and extend throughout the community high standards of musical standards."

From the name, the album cover and the bells outside at the start of the title track, I felt like I was in a cowboy movie. Dan and Tracee Miller then trade intense vocals over pedal steel guitar, banjo, raw guitar sounds, and sparse, driving drumming.

Child Of The Moon is much slower, less in your face track with the eerie pedal steel and banjo strumming making this a walk-home-after-a-long-day type of song.

Someday...


What impresses me most, surely purposely, is their ability to take you back in time. To when things were simpler, and clearer. Everything from their music's artwork, their website, to their sound and lyrics creates this.

The third track is the very harmonious and beautifully versed Scar Beneath The Skin. The most poetic and perfect example of this I feel is this verse:
"Floor board creaking once again
Each morning when your day begins
Brittle branches sprouted leaves
Wind chimes swaying in the breeze."

In order to get the beauty of it, you have to listen to the song. Sorry folks.

The EP finishes with more upbeat and energetic Never Again about love lost and taken for granted and a live version of Someday... which makes we want to see them live.

A good alternative country album which, with more listening, really grows on you.

They have an album due for release soon, which I look forward to.


Blanche website: www.blanchemusic.com/
Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/blanchedetroit

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

The first thing that struck me was this bands name. I conjured up images of a holy and religious black minister rallying the congregation. The second thing was the singers very nasal whiney voice. At first it was strange and ever so slightly annoying, with me thinking "it has got to grow on me at SOME point - Surely!"

Having endured the first track which is like a "roll up, roll up" circus music, I was scared. Having forced myself to sit through it I found myself slowly being captured by this very imaginitive and creative debut album.

With the exception of a couple of songs, the lyrics are very random and I'd be surprised if someone knew what it was about. For example, Alec sings:

I heard it from a friend
The Revolution never happened
Sigh
A little die
No more a child
Goodbye

It sometimes seems that certain lines rhymes were only made that way so he could use his voice to drag out the whines. This is not a criticism as what makes this album for me is not the lyrics, or the wailing voice, but the rhythm, riffs and melodic, quirkily catchy tunes that this group has created.

Is This Love? is an upbeat track, great backing vocals, and simply brilliant riffs. Heavy Metal starts with a riff and is joined by a harmonica with a bass-line taking over shortly after. There are no weak songs (apart from the horrible intro, if you could call it a song) and shows that the band has more than just one trick.



If you can bear putting up with the wailing, then give this album a go. I imagine you could split the nation on his voice, I just hope you can have some faith long enough for it to make an impression.


Clap Your Hands Say Yeah website: www.clapyourhandssayyeah.com
Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/clapyourhandssayyeah

Herman Dune: Giant - Album Review

Once again, I have fallen in love with a Swedish band. Only recently having discovered them, they consist of André Herman Düne (guitars and vocals), David-Ivar Herman Düne (guitars and vocals) and Neman Herman Düne (drums and sometimes backing vocals).

The first track I heard is "I wish I could see you soon" which has an accompanying video which is simple and beautiful. Andre introduces 3 letters Y-O-U and says "when they are together they are a word, they are the best name in the world" before proceeding into the brilliantly crafted tune, with upbeat guitar followed by the "angels" singing and horns.

In fact, why not just watch it yourself....


There are some very witty, amusing little lines, especially in the song 1-2-3 Apple Tree with such as "if you're puzzled and if you don't understand me, you can play me like a DVD". It's a childlike love song with other gems like "If you called me Ray if my name was Raymond, your name ain't Suzanne but i would call you Sue, to show you how much i like to be with you"

I get the impression that David Ivar is not making fun of you, but just having fun with you.

The percussion through the album is particularly impressive with "Doctor Lori Schonberg" on the bongo drums on many tracks.

David-Ivar often goes from singing to talking and back which makes it almost like he's talking to you personally and much of the lyrics give you the same impression.

Overall a brilliant album with variation, personal tales and some touching love songs.

For some reason Amazon are not selling this album but you can find it on CD Wow or HERE

Herman Dune: www.hermandune.com
Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/therealhermandune

Loney, Dear: Sologne - Album Review

I wish I could start by telling you what the name of the band means. However, I can't.... Sologne, however, is a region in north-central France.

What I can tell you is that this band which is, in the main, the creation of Emil Svanangen is full of very personal songs. The beauty of the album is that Emil has artistic freedom and there are no shoe-horns into any category, style and you feel like this is an album created just as he wanted it. After all he did record it in his home.

The opening song "The Battle of Trinidad and Tobago" has Emil's quivering, beautifully imperfect voice, atmospheric guitars and backing voices building up to a mini-crescendo, then fading out into the distance along with the whistling and the "marching" drums. The 2nd track is another slower number "Where are you go go going to". As the title suggests the first syllable of many words are repeated. Personally I find this annoying, however by the end of the track you have a good idea of the quality coming on the rest of the album.

"The City, The Airport" is a upbeat, catchy tune with chanting, horns, drums, everything. It grows and grows with more instruments and you want it to continue forever.

There is a variety of sound on this album which makes it very easy to listen to all the way through without getting bored.

All in all a very good effort from another of Sweden's exports. True to his own style, this album reflects very well on Loney, Dear.


Loney, Dear website: www.loneydear.com
Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/loneydear

Lambchop: Damaged - Album Review

Some time ago I was introduced to this bands music. The first Album I got was Nixon which I still find brilliant.

I recently went to see them at Shepherd's Bush Empire.

To be honest I was somewhat disappointed by this album. Not because of the quality of the songs, but simply the variety. In the main, the songs are very slow, sedate tunes with Kurt Wagner's low voice over them.

The opening track "Paperback bible" is a slow song which is pretty much the contents of a local paper's "for sale section". It is an interesting topic for a song and quite something that Kurt holds it together despite it being a banal subject.

The atmospheric lead guitar and particularly the strings section create the mood perfectly. I just find it a shame that the mood is the same throughout the album. With Nixon, there were a few tracks which were more upbeat and faster. Up with People was a catchy number that that lifts it up above the doldrums.

While I'm sure there will be some Lambchop fans who will simply fall in love with this in time, for me it's simply too much of the same slow tunes with little to lift it up. Each song alone is really something to behold. Just a shame they were of the same ilk throughout the album.

I would suggest that you only get this album if you are a die-heard Lambchop fan, not as a first introduction to their work.


Lambchop website: www.lambchop.net/
Myspace Page:
www.myspace.com/lambchopisaband

I'm From Barcelona: Let Me Introduce My Friends - Album Review

This 29 piece, child-like Swedish group have produced a pop album that is layered in unashamedly happy sing-along tunes to brighten the worst of days. I know that sounds cheesy, but this band manages to make it acceptable to be like a kid.

From the first track Oversleeping, which starts with an alarm clock and someone turning it off to the energetic line "Daaamn, oversleeping again". The riffs are upbeat and the chorus infectious.

I saw this band live in September and there were "only" 22 of them on stage. The lead singer was wearing a New Kids On the Block cap and they were all jumping around on stage singing. They sure woke us up at 12am!

Then there is "Collection of Stamps" a song about stamps from different countries of the world. The chorus is "You know I can't believe I'm telling everyone that I know, that every stamp in my collection is a place we could go"

Having heard a few of their songs live, I was intrigued and bought their album. I was expecting their live tracks to be the highlights of the album, but I was amazed at the pure life they excude on the whole album. Every band member contributes with an instrument or two and they ALL sing. With horns, glockenspiel, an omnichord, ukulele and skull shakers, the sound produced is rich and uplifting.

One of the final songs The Saddest Lullaby is about a little kid not knowing what is happening and being confused and sad. At the end of the song, you find out the kid who "fell asleep and wet my bed." This is the slowest track on the album.

Overall, listening to this album in the morning will start your day well and give you a lift on the way to work, will brighten your life and you will be better for it.


I'm From Barcelona website: www.imfrombarcelona.com
Myspace Page:
www.myspace.com/imfrombarcelona

Hemstad: Den Som Läser Detta Är - Album review

Hemstad are a 6 piece Swedish band who I was unfortunate enough to miss at the recent End of the Road Festival near Salisbury.

Having heard their up-tempo, catchy music, I decided to by their album from CatBird Records (details below). My only criticism of the album is the short length. It is just under 23 minutes. But what it lacks in time it certainly makes up with it's enthusiasm.

While the lyrics are few and far between with the main singing being bah-bah-bah-bah, there is something memorable in of all the tunes. Listening, I can just imagine them all having a hoot playing away on stage as it's energy is very well transformed onto disk.

With the haunting organ, the horns and fantastic base lines, this an album worthy of getting. This is what I consider great "driving music". Just don't go too fast!

This album can be purchased from Catbird Records
Hemstad website: www.hemstadhemstad.com
Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/hemstad

Jamieson Tobey: Everybody Feels The Same - Album Review

I recently got sent a message from this chap on myspace. As it was a personal message rather than a random add, I decided to give him my time and listen to his music. (www.myspace.com/jamiesontobey) I was pleasantly surprised.

I liked it so much I got his album shipped to me from the USA. I have to say I am very impressed. He plays ALL instruments on the whole recording including hammer chimes, sleighbells and "bottles played with chopsticks" along with several more conventional instruments.

The 2nd song "Everybody feels the same" is a powerful tune with the chorus "Rest assured, that the world is fucking with me too". It's a somewhat poppy almost upbeat number, and rich in sound.

Smoke is another catchy tune. With a repeated bell theme throughout. Jamieson's myspace intro was based on our both being fans of Brendan Benson and you can hear that catchy pop music without the usual tripe. Jamieson has produce an album worthy of note, the tracks are uplifting in the main with a couple of slower ones for variety.

I highly recomend giving this album a go - you wont be dissappointed.

This album can be purchased from CD Baby
Jamieson Tobey website: www.jamiesontobey.com
Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/jamiesontobey