Music Reviews
A variety of stuff reviewedArchive for Coventry
Albums #4
Jackie Mittoo – Reggae Magic!
A founding member of the Skatalites and an extraordinarily prolific songwriter, Mittoo deserves his place as one of the most influental legends of reggae. “Reggae Music” is an instrumental album featuring his excellent keyboard playing and slick rhythms. It’s as cool as a hot summers day. Jackie’s soulful organ sounds may at times sound somewhat cheesy but it’s still managing to kick. The style is unique – warm, melodic and addictive – and I play this album and think of flares, afro’s, starsky and hutch and Georgie Best. Nicely kitsch. Very 70’s and very good. 7.5/10
Dennis Brown – Visions
Visions is probably the finest Dennis Brown album on the market. Released in 1978, it find Brown at his most prolific and creative. The vocals are bang on the mark throughout and there isn’t a bad song anywhere in sight. The heartbreaking “Oh Mother” is just wonderful with Brown using the most natural instrument he has – that voice of his (it’s hard to believe that he was barely out of his teens when he sang these songs with such maturity and assurance). He offers wise words on the mellow “Stay At Home” (“Dont let your mama down, dont be a runaround”)and offers an inspiring cover of The Heptones “Love Me Always”. The production from Joe Gibbs is fantastic and Brown is proud, political and thought provoking on songs like “Malcolm X”, “Repatriation” and “Deliverance Will Come”. 9/10
The Specials – The Specials
Released almost 30 years ago, The Specials debut album still has that ’shiver up the spine’ magic now like it did on its original release. Their influence on popular music today cannot be understated. Can you imagine a Damon Albarn or The Streets without a Terry Hall? Probably not. The lo-fi raw energetic sound burns a spirit right through the entire album (Elvis Costello produced). Standards like “A Message To You Rudy” are given a kick and the message (both visually and aurally) of racial harmony and non-violence at a time of National Front disturbances was a important and inspiring one. Written at a time when Thatcher’s terrible years were to cast a shadow on the working class, this record comes straight from the city for the city. The lyrics throughout are fantastic and Hall’s vocals are deadpan. None more does he hit the spot on the outstanding “Doesn’t Make It Alright” – “Just because you’re a black boy..
Just because you’re a white..
It doesn’t mean you’ve got to hate him..
It doesn’t mean you’ve got to fight..” he sings with no excuses being accepted for racial intolerance and violence. A debut album that marries the spirit of punk and the sounds of reggae and ska. It was and still is one of the most important records in British history. 10/10
Aztec Camera – High Land, Hard Rain
It’s easy to forget that Roddy Frame was just 19 when he wrote this fantastic debut record. I don’t want you to put you off by saying poetic pop, but the whole thing certainly does move around with both super energy and excellent lyrics. The poppy and upbeat “Oblivious” still has its nice strummy charm and “Down The Dip” strips bare to acoustic guitar and vocals with Roddy showing passion that makes a mockery of some of the awful trite sentimental trash that filled the charts at that time. Depth, emotion but most of all packed full with great tunes (The Boy Wonders, Walk Out to winter, the bugle sounds again, oblivious, pillar to post..) – this should find a place in your heart and your home. 9/10
Albums #1
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
“The Ghost of you lingers” stays in your mind long after the closing bars. It’s one of those “listen with your headphones on and with your eyes shut” songs that just <i>get</i> you. It’s delicious and dark and creepy but strangely erotic all at once. Spoon deserve to be up there with the giants of the indie/alternative scene. On “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” they manage to pull of a great trick – sounding mildly poppy and mainstream without ever compromising on their edgy hooks and their experimental genius burns strong throughout. Whether it’s the reggae-ish sound on “Finer Feelings”, the bluesy and rugged opener “Don’t make me a target”, the bittersweet pop craft evident on “You Got Yr Cherry Bomb” and “The Underdog” or the sheer hypnotic thrill of “The Ghost That Lingers”, this is one of the best albums I have heard this year. You may want to avoid the limited edition version though which includes a second disc full of short outakes although it does give you a further insight into the tension to their songs which is never far away from the surface. 8.5/10
Supergrass – I Should Coco
As much as I loved Blur and Pulp, “I Should Coco” may just well be the best of all the Britpop albums. Over 12 years after its release, this album still makes you want to jump around your bedroom. It’s so much fun. The sound of young guys let loose in the studio on a sugar-rush and a headful of cool tunes. Despite “Alright” being heavily over-played at the time, it still remains a lesson in perfect teenage pop writing “We wake up, we go out, smoke a fag, put it out..see our friends, see the sights..feel alright!”. The slightly goofy punk pop sound is not without some outstanding moments. “Caught By The Fuzz” with its edgy tense fear about being arrested is a cracking tune and “Mansize Rooster” still bounces all over your head in unashamed joy. If your an old git, you’ll hate it. If you’re young or young at heart, what is there not to like? A cracking album that sounds as fresh now as it did in the mid 90’s. 10/10
The Enemy – We’ll Live and Die In These Towns
Almost 30 years ago, a band emerged from Coventry called The Specials who were to have an immense impact on British music. The Enemy could easily have a similar impact if they continue to make records like this. The comparisons to Oasis are a bit cloudy though – Oasis don’t write decent lyrics for a start! and it’s been a long long time now since the Brothers grim wrote songs this catchy, energetic and vibrant. The Appeal to this band is that they should continue to get better and better – all the ingrediants are certainly there – like songs, attitude and knowing the right trainers to wear. The singles are of course fantastic with the working class anthem “It’s Not OK” and the sing-a-long stomp of “Had Enough” hitting the right buttons throughout. And the album follows in a similar vein throughout with “This Song” also a top highlight. A young angry and highly infectious record that should be one of the albums of the year in the end of year polls everywhere. 9/10
The Pigeon Detectives – Wait For Me
I wanted to love this album, I really did. The criticism The Pigeon Detectives get is wrong – there is nothing wrong with catchy indie-pop (we have so many shoegazing serious and ultimately dull as dishwasher indie bands clogging up things)..but here lies the rub. The Pigeon Detectives are dull not for having the cheek to marry The Monkeys with The Libertines but because the tunes don’t particularly grab you over the course of an album. Sure, there’s a certain rush to songs like “Romantic Type” and especially “I Found Out” but will you be playing this album in a year or even 6 months time? probably not. Very ordinary, very samey and not very inspiring. 5/10
The Good, The Bad And The Queen
The band with no name is the latest in creative adventures for Blur frontman Damon Albarn and rather like Gorillaz, Albarn sounds yet further away from the ‘pop person’ we remembered from his Britpop days. Helped along by ex-Clash bass player Paul Simonon and Former Verve Guitarist Simon Tong, Albarn makes a record that is dark and cinematic. What they manage to do so well is to create a hangover from Parklife – as much as musical landscape about London than it is a lyrical portrait. The mood is sombre throughout with snatches of songs and scrapbooks of ideas that somehow all merge together. This helps make this sound like a fully flowing album rather than just a collection of hits and filler. Whether it stands out as Albarn’s best work is debatable but tracks like the beautifully soothing “Nature Springs” and “The Bunting Song” sound like lullabies of our times. 7.5/10
