Glasvegas
sounds something like the collaborative effort of The Jesus And
Mary Chain and pop stars of the 1950s and 1960s. With their wall
of guitars and drums lifting singer James Allen’s thickly
accented vocals to epic heights, the band create some stunning
moments throughout the record’s 10 tracks. The opener Flowers
& Football Tops`A0is a fitting and near epic
introduction to the rest of the album. It’s an absolutely
stellar song followed by the equally impressive Geraldine,
a song about a social worker promising to be "the angel on
your shoulder." Other highlights include the anthemic
rocker Go Square Go and the drum-heavy ballad S.A.D.
Light. What makes the album so sonically perfect is the
contrast between the grandeur of Rich Costey’s big New York
production, the simplicity of the songs and the immediacy of
their Dion & The Belmonts-via-Dalmarnock inflections. Their
most socially aware songs, Stabbed and Daddy’s Gone,
remain as astounding as at first listen. The former rips through
a classic indie-rock template to the raw guts underneath by the
sheer force of Allan’s retching-up-his-soul delivery and its
genius subject matter. It’s My Own Cheating Heart That
Makes Me Cry similarly still stuns with its frank but never
mawkish sense of abandonment.
Best track:
Flowers & Football Tops
Worst track:
Ice Cream Van
Rating: ***
All The
Saints — Fire On Corridor X (KP)
All
the Saints are a three-piece from Atlanta who have been
described as a metal radiohead or the missing link between
space-rock and grunge. For an early effort, Fire On Corridor X
is remarkably cohesive and varied, its more pensive interludes
leading relentlessly into riff-bending onslaughts. Too many
elements often make for a mucky mix, but not this time. All the
Saints keep form and function simple. Each track tilts forward,
amassing pressure in volume. The weighty sound warns to
self-destruct, to collapse into the noise of hopelessness and
tired aggression, but the three-piece holds it together, pacing
themselves with rhythm — their terminal discipline. Songs like
the bursting opener Sheffield form the bread and butter
of the disc, and even on more subdued tracks like the Black
Heart Procession — influenced Hornett,another
explosion is only the three-minute mark away. Regal Regalia
grinds ahead and Papering Fix is the winner for best
groove. Farmacia carries the darkened, reverb-shuddering
twang, with Jim Crook’s furious drums providing the bulk of
the adrenaline surge. The acoustic Leeds is an exception.
Even when the volume level drops, All The Saints’ immense
sound permeates the atmosphere, leaving the listener to swim
inside of their lush creation.
Best track:
Sheffield
Worst track:
Shadow, Shadow
Rating: ***
Fall Out Boy —
Folie A Deux
(Island)
Frontman
Patrick Stump’s confidence and enthusiasm for new sounds and
genres brings an easy sense of fun to the album, regularly
breaking into falsetto and adding swooping harmonies to the mix.
To get the right classic 1980s vibe on Donnie, the band
enlisted Elvis Costello, who turns in a tasty but quick cameo
near the song’s end. Other surprising guest stars include rap
superstar Lil Wayne on Tiffany Blews and Deborah Harry,
who’s excellent on West Coast Smoker. Their cover of Beat
It rocks even harder than Michael Jackson’s original, Headfirst
Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet is a steady foot-stomper
complete with nice stabs of brass, and Coffee’s For Closers
is a useful showcase of the band’s ability to deliver witty
lyrics. On a weaker note, the band so often picks up interesting
sounds and then drops them just as quickly. Production from
Pharrell Williams seems like a promising concept, but the things
that do catch the ear disappear in the mix or are swiftly
discarded. She’s My Winona and 20 Dollar Nose Bleed
contains an intriguing electronic presence during the verses.
The single I Don’t Care, with its Goth-rock elements
and T-Rex nods, is interesting, volatile. Folie
absolutely succeeds on the musical front, adding buckets of new
flavors and textures into the Fall Out Boy palette — most of
which stem from Stump’s newfound discovery of vocal harmonies.
Best track:
20 Dollar Nose Bleed
Worst track:
W.A.M.S.
Rating: **
Album of the month
Anthony Hamilton
— The Point Of It All (LaFace)
Seven-time
Grammy-nominated artist Anthony Hamilton has proven himself to
be one of the logical heirs to Marvin Gaye. His rich vocal
prowess, steeped both in R&B and the traditions of the
church, is a rarity during a time when soul has been hijacked by
digitisation. The Point Of It All contains a wide range of raw
soul-infused music with Hamilton at the helm co-writing and
co-producing on the album with his longtime collaborators,
producer/songwriter Kelvin Wooten and Mark Batson. Differing
from immediate predecessors, the album embraces Hamilton’s
newfound happiness on tracks like the piano-driven, Falling
In Love and Soul’s On Fire, setting the tone for
Anthony’s story of infidelity where he confesses and prays to
be freed of guilt. So Hard to Breathe truly goes back to
the early days when Gospel singers took their traditions into
secular music. Whether it’s the horn-drenched opener The
News or his stripped-down collaboration with David Banner on
Cool, Hamilton exudes easy, confident style. A rock
classicism also is evident at points, such as in Fine Again,
an anthem that owes as much to Gnarls Barkley as it does to
late-period Beatles. The best songs are the ones that allow the
most open space for Hamilton’s voice, such as the old-school
soul of the closer, She’s Gone. Hamilton makes a few
hip hop moves here, yet does not follow in the footsteps of
R&B revivalists, instead he plows his own path, making a
mature brand of soul that’s still vital in every sense.
Glasvegas
sounds something like the collaborative effort of The Jesus And
Mary Chain and pop stars of the 1950s and 1960s. With their wall
of guitars and drums lifting singer James Allen’s thickly
accented vocals to epic heights, the band create some stunning
moments throughout the record’s 10 tracks. The opener Flowers
& Football Tops`A0is a fitting and near epic
introduction to the rest of the album. It’s an absolutely
stellar song followed by the equally impressive Geraldine,
a song about a social worker promising to be "the angel on
your shoulder." Other highlights include the anthemic
rocker Go Square Go and the drum-heavy ballad S.A.D.
Light. What makes the album so sonically perfect is the
contrast between the grandeur of Rich Costey’s big New York
production, the simplicity of the songs and the immediacy of
their Dion & The Belmonts-via-Dalmarnock inflections. Their
most socially aware songs, Stabbed and Daddy’s Gone,
remain as astounding as at first listen. The former rips through
a classic indie-rock template to the raw guts underneath by the
sheer force of Allan’s retching-up-his-soul delivery and its
genius subject matter. It’s My Own Cheating Heart That
Makes Me Cry similarly still stuns with its frank but never
mawkish sense of abandonment.
All
the Saints are a three-piece from Atlanta who have been
described as a metal radiohead or the missing link between
space-rock and grunge. For an early effort, Fire On Corridor X
is remarkably cohesive and varied, its more pensive interludes
leading relentlessly into riff-bending onslaughts. Too many
elements often make for a mucky mix, but not this time. All the
Saints keep form and function simple. Each track tilts forward,
amassing pressure in volume. The weighty sound warns to
self-destruct, to collapse into the noise of hopelessness and
tired aggression, but the three-piece holds it together, pacing
themselves with rhythm — their terminal discipline. Songs like
the bursting opener Sheffield form the bread and butter
of the disc, and even on more subdued tracks like the Black
Heart Procession — influenced Hornett, another
explosion is only the three-minute mark away. Regal Regalia
grinds ahead and Papering Fix is the winner for best
groove. Farmacia carries the darkened, reverb-shuddering
twang, with Jim Crook’s furious drums providing the bulk of
the adrenaline surge. The acoustic Leeds is an exception.
Even when the volume level drops, All The Saints’ immense
sound permeates the atmosphere, leaving the listener to swim
inside of their lush creation.
Frontman
Patrick Stump’s confidence and enthusiasm for new sounds and
genres brings an easy sense of fun to the album, regularly
breaking into falsetto and adding swooping harmonies to the mix.
To get the right classic 1980s vibe on Donnie, the band
enlisted Elvis Costello, who turns in a tasty but quick cameo
near the song’s end. Other surprising guest stars include rap
superstar Lil Wayne on Tiffany Blews and Deborah Harry,
who’s excellent on West Coast Smoker. Their cover of Beat
It rocks even harder than Michael Jackson’s original, Headfirst
Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet is a steady foot-stomper
complete with nice stabs of brass, and Coffee’s For Closers
is a useful showcase of the band’s ability to deliver witty
lyrics. On a weaker note, the band so often picks up interesting
sounds and then drops them just as quickly. Production from
Pharrell Williams seems like a promising concept, but the things
that do catch the ear disappear in the mix or are swiftly
discarded. She’s My Winona and 20 Dollar Nose Bleed
contains an intriguing electronic presence during the verses.
The single I Don’t Care, with its Goth-rock elements
and T-Rex nods, is interesting, volatile. Folie
absolutely succeeds on the musical front, adding buckets of new
flavors and textures into the Fall Out Boy palette — most of
which stem from Stump’s newfound discovery of vocal harmonies.
Seven-time
Grammy-nominated artist Anthony Hamilton has proven himself to
be one of the logical heirs to Marvin Gaye. His rich vocal
prowess, steeped both in R&B and the traditions of the
church, is a rarity during a time when soul has been hijacked by
digitisation. The Point Of It All contains a wide range of raw
soul-infused music with Hamilton at the helm co-writing and
co-producing on the album with his longtime collaborators,
producer/songwriter Kelvin Wooten and Mark Batson. Differing
from immediate predecessors, the album embraces Hamilton’s
newfound happiness on tracks like the piano-driven, Falling
In Love and Soul’s On Fire, setting the tone for
Anthony’s story of infidelity where he confesses and prays to
be freed of guilt. So Hard to Breathe truly goes back to
the early days when Gospel singers took their traditions into
secular music. Whether it’s the horn-drenched opener The
News or his stripped-down collaboration with David Banner on
Cool, Hamilton exudes easy, confident style. A rock
classicism also is evident at points, such as in Fine Again,
an anthem that owes as much to Gnarls Barkley as it does to
late-period Beatles. The best songs are the ones that allow the
most open space for Hamilton’s voice, such as the old-school
soul of the closer, She’s Gone. Hamilton makes a few
hip hop moves here, yet does not follow in the footsteps of
R&B revivalists, instead he plows his own path, making a
mature brand of soul that’s still vital in every sense.
