Music RECORDS
TRIBUTE ALBUM VARIOUS ARTISTS Johnny Boy Would Love This . . . A Tribute to John Martyn (Hole in the Rain/Liason) ●●●●●
However affectionate a tribute album, they can still make you wish classic songs, like historic buildings, could somehow be listed to preserve their original splendour. Case in point on this set dedicated to late, great folk and jazz man John Martyn: Snow Patrol’s demolition of ‘May You Never’. ‘Shall we protect its understated intimacy?’, you can almost hear Gary Lightbody consider. ‘Sod that – string section.’
The rest ranges from play-it-safe and vanilla (two tracks by Morcheeba – really?) to plain WTF? (Phil Collins). But a few geniuses ride to the rescue – Robert Smith’s moody ‘Small Hours’, Beck’s super- cool ‘Stormbringer’ and Vashti Bunyan’s gorgeous ‘Head and Heart’. Johnny would definitely have loved that. (Malcolm Jack)
GUITAR POP CHARLIE SIMPSON Young Pilgrim (Nusic) ●●●●● PSYCH-ROCK WOODEN SHJIPS West (Thrill Jockey) ●●●●●
From those unedifying but undoubtedly popular days with Busted, teen crush magnet Charlie Simpson deserves credit for finally reaching a musical plateau that might be referred to as ‘grown-up’. Following his noisy emo breakout with Fightstar, this worthily named, debut solo album – paid for by fans’ pledges – hits the heights of maturity with a sound that almost matches Nickelback in its forlorn dad-rockery. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s very rarely inspiring. There’s a pleasant, nostalgic shuffle to ‘Thorns’ and an ambling Evan Dando-sounding bitter- sweetness to ‘I Need a Friend Tonight’, while ‘All at Once’ stands out as the only song that picks up the pace. If you consider Coldplay to be one of the greatest rock bands ever, you’re strongly encouraged to give this a try. (David Pollock)
Any fears that Wooden Shjips’ first trip into a recording studio would compromise the fug of their psych- rock are swiftly allayed by ‘Black Smoke Rise’, the opening track from the San Franciscans’ new long-player.
It revokes their bygone DIY
tendencies yet reveals that Ripley Johnson (also of Moon Duo) is as in thrall to 60s garage, 70s psych, Crazy Horse and Suicide as ever. (The power-chord amulet of The Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’ also swings throughout, to hypnotic effect).
‘Black Smoke Rise’ sets the scene and pace for an album inspired by the ideology and mysticism of the American West, but while Wooden Shjips remain explorative and intoxicating, (and the backwards- conceit of ‘Rising’ notwithstanding), they break little new ground. (Nicola Meighan)
POST PUNK THE WILD SWANS The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years (Occultation) ●●●●● After 30 years of hurt, Paul Simpson’s band of reignited pop classicists are on a mission. A supergroup of crusaders recruited from Echo and the Bunnymen, Spiritualized and Brian Jonestown Massacre, this manifesto of epics sounds like a one-man war on the sort of botched urban regeneration that has left Simpson’s beloved Liverpool so bereft of character and heart. Amid jangling guitars and piano flourishes, Simpson’s brooding baritone trainspots a litany of desecrated pop cultural iconography, from Turner’s sunsets in pools of vomit to William Blake in Cash Converters. Mrs Albion, as well as a lovely daughter, you have a brand new champion to call your own. (Neil Cooper)
124 THE LIST 11–18 Aug 2011
ROCK/ POP THE WAR ON DRUGS Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian) ●●●●● WORLD VARIOUS ARTISTS Cumbia! Bestial (Chusma Records) ●●●●●
Philadelphia’s The War On Drugs (a group which once included Kurt Vile as the guitarist) aims to fuse the heartland American rock of Dylan and Springsteen with shoegaze guitars, spectral keyboards and motorik beats. Nice idea, and on songs like ‘Best Night’ it works quite well, suggesting Paul Westerberg driving down the Autobahn to Düsseldorf.
Early 80s synthpop is the main reference point, and ‘Baby Missiles’, a peppy homage to The Boss’ ‘Dancing In The Dark’, wouldn’t sound out of place in a John Hughes movie.
Sadly, when the martial drums of
‘Come To The City’ kick in, it all goes a bit U2, sacrificing subtlety for anthemic banality. (Stewart Smith)
Americans have been dancing in time with the Colombian cumbia music style, with its easy slide side-to-side moves in 2/4 time since the 60s, but it only really hit the international club scene in the 21st century. Cumbia! Bestial offers a
continental perspective by bringing together cutting-edge DJ remixes from Bogotá, México and Buenos Aires. Voices layer above zippily rhythmic accordion and keyboard melodies, playfully fusing with blasts of brass, electronica and bass-ily raucous industrial textures with plenty hip hop, reggae, rap and other ingredients. While it may help that one of the DJs is head of EMI Mexico it just shows how hip that scene is. Very good to dance to. (Jan Fairley)
SINGLES & DOWNLOADS
Quite a light singles bag this week at The List, and sitting atop the puny stack is Hard-Fi. Why must you offend us so with tracks like ‘Fire in the House’ (Atlantic) ●●●●●, which sounds depressingly like a Saturday night down the A&E pressing a bloody rag to a broken nose?
Speaking of blood on the dancefloor, it’s Glasgow trash mob How To Swim with ‘Corpsing’ (Personal Hygiene) ●●●●●, three minutes of manic thrash-disco thrills examining ‘the dichotomy of dancing and dying’. Speaking of copping it, Wynter Gordon drops a party-pop firecracker with ‘Til Death’ (Big Beat) ●●●●● but London wasted youths Tribes, a new band set to meet their pop maker sooner rather than later judging by sub-Suede glammy contrivance ‘Sappho’ (Island) ●●●●●. Another three-star effort is Toddla-T’s wiggly synth workout ‘Watch Me Dance’ (Ninja Tune) ●●●●●, which we’d speculate could make for a decent Ibiza summer anthem – if we’d ever actually been.
But forget summer because Christmas has come early, with free downloads from two fine artists readying long-awaited new LPs. For their excellence and unseasonal generosity a joint Single of the Week goes to swoonsome Swedish indie crooner Jens Lekman with the characteristically groovesome and witty ‘An Argument With Myself’ (Secretly Canadian) ●●●●●, and electro-shoegaze Frenchman M83’s ‘Midnight City’ (Mute) ●●●●●, a certified banger to get fists and hearts pumping feverishly. The latter’s worth a click for the triumphant 80s sax solo alone – go forth and download. (Malcolm Jack) ■ Download M83 at ilovem83.com/midnight-city and Jens Lekman at scjag.com/mp3/sc/argument. mp3