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Gomez - Gomez - Whatever's on Your Mind It’s a long time since Gomez won the Mercury Music Prize. Thirteen years, to be precise, since they beat The Verve, Massive Attack and Pulp to the award back in 1998. And after one spin of this, their seventh studio album, you’ll think it was even longer ago. Perhaps in another life altogether. To be fair, Gomez have been sliding towards middle-of-the-road mediocrity for a while now. Those first three albums - Bring it On, Liquid Skin, and In Our Gun - were rife with a sense of raw, youthful experimentation, blending British and American folk... Jeff Buckley - Jeff Buckley - Grace While Jeff Buckley’s sole complete studio document has achieved two million sales worldwide since its mid-90s release, its impact at the time was far from impressive. And that’s from both critical and commercial perspectives, as although today it’s regularly held in high regard come top-albums lists, a mixed reception greeted it on its initial emergence. Listening today, almost 17 years to the day after that first release, it’s easy to hear why reviewers weren’t universally moved by Grace. Its best-known track isn’t even one penned by Buckley, Hallelujah being a cover of Leonard Cohen’s haunting masterpiece. Nor is Corpus... Mike Scott - Mike Scott - Saturation Point If we were fortunate enough to still have Joe Strummer within our midst and decided to take him for a few bevvies in rural America, the resulting sound may have sounded something a little like Mike Scott. "Saturation Point" is a catalogue of micro-outbursts of punk rock attitude squashed into an acoustic folk body. Rather than standing awkwardly like a child not enjoying the starchy feel of their Sunday Best, this is a really rather charming gallop through seventeen tracks of pure energy and raw emotion that somehow works. There really is an interesting juxtaposition between the warm rustic feel... St. Vincent - St. Vincent "Surgeon"from the album Strange Mercy2010iTunesA couple of Annie Clark's recent live performances under her St. Vincent moniker included covers of Big Black's "Kerosene" and "Big Black Mariah" by Tom Waits. There's a neat thematic link there, not just in the leap from one Big Black to the other, but also in her decision to remodel the work of artists who construct alluringly grotesque worlds out of basic "rock" tools. The best St. Vincent material does that, too. Here on "Surgeon," our first taste of the forthcoming Strange Mercy (Sept. 13), everything feels... Stevie Wonder - Stevie Wonder - Innervisions Remarkably, Innervisions is Stevie Wonder's 16th studio album. It is the album that best celebrates his musical maturity and completes the transition from Little Stevie Wonder to the grown-up artist with an active imagination and burning social conscience. Coming just nine months after Talking Book, Innervisions is Wonder at the absolute peak of his powers, a 23-year-old man with the world at his fingertips. After the release of Talking Book, Wonder said: "We as a people are not interested in ‘baby, baby’ songs any more, there’s more to life than that." As a result, Innervisions is like a snapshot... Coldplay - Coldplay - Parachutes (2000) Lightly tasteful tablature stories and fables is the best way to describe the debut album that put Coldplay on the maps of the music industry. Just like the reality of a Parachute, this album will seem to be taking its time. Truth is, the combination of musical professionalism and lyrical content is truly going the speed of light. Track three, “Spies", resembles an overcast system hovering over beautiful tropic skies. From one environment to another, using every format of creative instrumental technique to blend into one 5 minute and 18 second song. “ And if we don’t buy here, They’re going to find us,... Okkervil River - Okkervil River: I Am Very Far Few bands are more acclaimed than Austin, Texas’ Okkervil River. Rock critic clichés like “hyper-literate lyrics” and “atmospheric indie-rock” abound"but that never seemed to matter on the 2005 breakthrough Black Sheep Boy and its follow-ups The Stage Names and The Stand Ins as Okkervil scrawled out gothic folk rock tales with the breathless desperation of first sex. With I Am Very Far, though, the band presents 11 patently Okkervil River songs"dramatically-building bridges, echoing back-up vocals, clattering pianos"largely missing the ache that made earlier releases such personal affairs. Songs like the pounding haunt “The Valley” and rock rave-up “Rider” resonate immediately,... Ziggy Marley - Ziggy Marley - Wild and Free It can’t be easy being Ziggy Marley. As the first-born son of Bob, the reggae icon hailed as "the first Third World Superstar" who remains very much a worldwide phenomenon more than 30 years after his death, Ziggy inevitably suffers from the same syndrome as Femi Kuti and Julian Lennon: being the son of someone so famous that forging your own musical identity is a terribly daunting challenge. Yet Ziggy has risen admirably to the task, racking up a number of Grammy awards, both for his solo work and as the leader of the Melody... The Black Keys - The Black Keys - The Big Come Up (2002) Persistence has never been more than a hit away for The Black Keys. Thanks to the success of their 2010 release "Brothers", blues and grit on a simple two-man platform is quickly becoming the here and now again. But spend some time with The Black Keys debut release, The Big Come Up, and you may realize just how oblivious you've been all these years.Back to back, tracks four and five "Countdown" and "The Breaks" respectively, have an undeniable sound. Of the thirteen total, two cover songs can be found. "Leavin' Trunk" written by Sleepy John Estes and "She Said, She... Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Wainwright - House of Rufus Not for Rufus the typical annotated reissue package, compiled a respectable time after the originals first appeared. House of Rufus is more a one-stop career shop, the ultimate extravaganza for the besotted collector. Because it’s a given no Rufus virgin will jump into bed with a 19-disc, 193-track box set, no matter how seductive the red velvet packaging and 90-page hardback (no sniggering, please) book containing handwritten lyrics, art prints and interview gush with the likes of sister Martha and Pet Shopper pal Neil Tennant. So what awaits the committed Rufus lover after all that foreplay? Setting aside... |