list.co.uk/music Records | MUSIC
ROCK / POP THE BIRTHDAY SUIT A Hollow Hole of Riches (Sing it Alone) ●●●●● HOUSE / DISCO 6TH BOROUGH PROJECT Borough 2 Borough (Delusions of Grandeur) ●●●●●
At the end of last year, Rod Jones responded to an online campaign from angst- riddled Idlewild fans who demanded a boycott on their solo projects until the band started recording again. Jones rightly pooh-poohed such notions, and no wonder, given that he sounds like he’s having a blast with his offshoot outfit, the Birthday Suit.
In any case, ‘A Bigger World’, the opening track of the band’s third CD, A Hollow Hole of Riches, could have fitted easily onto anything Idlewild produced. And once overly jaunty second track ‘All of This Everything’ is out the way, the collection settles into its dominant aspect. Though the press release reckons that fans of the Twilight Sad and the National will go a bundle on this, it feels as though it wouldn’t have happened had there never been an Interpol or Editors.
‘Tonight is Broken Hearted’, with its curious name-checking of Black Sabbath and New Kids on the Block, is all moody and gloomy until its explosive chorus of festival-crowd cheeriness. It’s probably the finest moment on here, aided by chucking in the ‘Born to Run’ drum break. Filler tracks are a little too abundant across the 11-strong collection, though, with ‘Someone Else’s Wealth’ and ‘Love Isn’t Love’ especially guilty as charged.
There’s nothing wrong with a shift in direction within a record, but quite how
‘Third Time Lucky‘ got in there is anyone’s guess. Its stabby guitar opening sounds
Despite the pair’s hectic schedules, in between numerous DJ-ing commitments and setting up their respective Roar Groove and Fifty Fathoms Deep labels, Glasgow’s Graeme Clark and Edinburgh’s Craig Smith have still squeezed in time to collaborate on this follow-up to their 2011 debut One Night In The Borough. First joining forces as 6th Borough Project six years ago, Clark’s best known for his own pitched down, house-meets-disco productions and re-edits as the Revenge, while Smith’s music career includes more than 20 years as a DJ and recordings for labels such as Soul Heaven and Five20East. While the duo regularly made neat use of vocals, guitar strings and brass, chopping and looping these samples to form the basis of many of their first album’s chugging, hypnotic creations, Borough 2 Borough sees them nudge towards a more stripped-back approach. Despite its 6th Borough Project trademark honeyed-vocal snippet, opener ‘Our Love’ feels like something of musical curveball due to its sloppy, off-kilter drums. However, next track ‘U Know U’ sees a return to more familiar territory, its entrancing synth gradually rising over a squelching bassline before dropping away, a Prince-like yelp heralding its return.
A funk guitar lick, a repetitive snatch of female vocal and shuffling beats shape ‘They Think It’s Over’, while both ‘In Your Arms’ and ‘Through The Night’ artfully utilise disco and funk samples to hypnotic effect. With its crawling tempo, twinkling keys and drawn-out ‘why’ vocal refrain, ‘The Call Back’ is the deepest
like a joke, but it’s deadly serious compared to the chorus that has apparently been pitched at the less mature viewers of CBeebies. We’re back on more solid ground with ‘(At Least) Much Better than Before’ which is impossible to listen to without concocting an action-packed football montage in your head or picturing a thousand iPhones being held towards the sky. As far as record titles go, it’s pretty spot on: there are some proper gems in here, but a clanking emptiness is its defining characteristic. (Brian Donaldson)
of deep house. ‘Back to Black’ utilises cowbells, rising strings and a swinging rhythm to form its musical backbone; the kind of foreboding bassline most often found on Detroit techno productions is the significant feature of ‘Read My Mind’, while ‘F.E.E.L’ and ‘The Vibes’ continue this darker musical theme. Album closer ‘Walk Way’ sees
Clark and Smith offer a funk-fuelled finale, its low-slung, slapped- out bass guitar and jangling percussion later accompanied by a weaving sax line. (Colin Chapman)
DREAM POP/ROCK DEAN WAREHAM Dean Wareham (Sonic Cathedral) ●●●●● JANGLY POP/ROCK REAL ESTATE Atlas (Domino) ●●●●●
No one ever claimed Dean Wareham was a great guitar player, least of all himself. But eavesdropping on his ongoing search for the lost note and perfect chord progression is compelling. With a knack for plaintive melody and lyrical phrasing most other songwriters would sacrifice their beard and plaid shirt for, his inability to quite perfect his mission is the key to his huge appeal.
The songwriting force behind revered proto grunge/dream pop trio Galaxie 500 (unconditional reverence for whom is de rigeur for anyone at college in the 80s) and the massively under-appreciated Luna, Dean Wareham’s first solo album proper appears 25 years into his career. This eponymous debut enters a musical landscape awash with artists detachedly delivering wry melodic lyrics over chiming guitars; depending on who you talk to, it’s either a template he either invented or reinvigorated long after Lou Reed abandoned it for muscular guitar rock.
Produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket, it’s a great match, resulting in atmospheres made of guitars, old synths and dry observations from a worldly-wise urbanite that provide an enveloping warmth which simultaneously celebrates the rough edges. The wavering vulnerability of Wareham’s voice and guitar are key, but the songwriting itself here is a mixed bag. ‘Beat the Devil’ does what it can with a pedestrian melody and obvious chords while ‘Babes in the Wood’ revisits ground covered better on Luna’s essential third album,
Going on three years now since Real Estate’s last album Days parked itself on your stereo and refused to budge, at last comes something to dislodge it – its every-bit- as-addictive successor Atlas. Few contemporaries top this New Jersey group – now grown to a five-piece with the addition of keyboardist Matt Kallman – for sheer all-moods, all-weather, all-hours listenability. Nor, it seems – now three records and five years deep into their career, with much great stuff arriving from guitarist Matt Mondanile’s not-dissimilar side-project Ducktails – for simple consistency. Steeped in Byrds-y jangle-pop classicism and such summery warmth that you
can practically smell hot pavement wafting from your speakers, like Days, this is hardly revolutionary stuff. But then neither is Atlas necessarily a genre piece. With a horizontally laid-back weave of guitars and bass, opener ‘Had To Hear’ reintroduces a band who struck on a subtly distinctive signature sound pretty much straight from the off with their self-titled 2009 debut, and have since set themselves to developing its textures, tones, shades and simple detail, while steadily growing its timeless appeal. Felt-style jangly instrumental jam ‘April’s Song’ – an instrumental being the traditional centrepiece of every Real Estate album to date – expresses wordlessly a sense of carefree majesty that other bands can expend whole albums trying to capture.
‘Talking Backwards’ is possibly Real Estate’s best single yet, a shimmering muse on the frustrations of long-distance romance set to chiming, darting melodies.
Penthouse. Thankfully, the good stuff more than makes up for it. The simple mantra of ‘Happy and Free’ and the album’s centrepiece ‘Holding Pattern’ (complete with a guitar solo of more glorious abandon than was ever wrestled from an instrument), are the sort of perfectly crafted, exquisitely delivered songs that lodge in your head for days before you relisten just to check it’s as good as you thought it was. (Hamish Brown)
‘The Bend’ resolves on a phase- washed wave of gentle Beatles-y psychedelia. Conjuring scenes of bunking off ‘out the backdoor’ to stare at shadows and wander aimlessly to the edge of town, shallow sigh of a closer ‘Navigator’ could practically be the stoned young suburban daydreamer’s lament, as Martin Courtney sings in his uniquely woozy way: ‘The day is young but I’m already spent, I have no idea where the time went.’ Several repeat spins of Atlas later, you’ll be wondering where the time went too. (Malcolm Jack) 20 Feb–20 Mar 2014 THE LIST 69