The album is Lights, and I was awaiting this little album a few days after mentioning her last month. It arrived, I got it, and I've been listening to it ever since. The album is fantastic, made up of a lot of tracks I already knew, and once getting past the reworked versions I just couldn't stop listening to this album, no matter how hard I tried. Just listening to one track is impossible, it simply leads on to another until the whole album is finished. Tracks of note - Guns and Horses, This Love (Will Be Your Downfall), Salt Skin and Every Time You Go. This album has been slightly slated as being disappointing, and while I agree there has been some resting on laurels with the record company, this is only a first album and there is plenty of time to progress. So long as she does, but I have no feeling that she won't, having followed her progress from early doors. Catchy, poppy tracks that blend folk and electro in an interesting way - it's how good pop should be.
Two Door Cinema Club -A great band that caught my attention a few months ago. The album is Tourist History. And whilst my computer is fighting with me about this one (it won't play some of the tracks when it doesn't feel like it), this album is a belter. A great blend of melodies, now spiced up with the addition of a drummer to accompany the three (yes, count them, three) vocalists giving the music a bigger driving force. Tracks to watch - Come Back Home, Something Good Can Work, Undercover Martyn, You're Not Stubborn.
Laura Marling -The uber talented songstress returns with her sophomore album, I Talk Because I Can. I was a bit sceptical about the return with the yuletide release of Goodbye England (Covered In Snow), but the track soon caught me singing along and finding myself caught inside another one of Marling's beautifully written and wise beyond her years songs. Whilst Ellie Goulding might be accused of still possessing immature lyrics, Marling simply oozes the aged soul that can only come from growing up on the greats like Dylan and Neil Young. And this album shows a more grown up edge, if that is possible. Live performances now feature less the non-interactive, silent between songs girl who once took the stage mesmorising audiences to the confident and wonderful woman who holds court, all the while mesmorising new audiences, and old once again.
Alphabeat -
The album is The Spell, and despite the premise I find this album really disappointing. I've never been the biggest Alphabeat fan, bar a couple of stonkingly catchy tracks and this album held much hope with me but once again they have fallen into classic terroritory with me. Whilst some tracks are good enough, the others simply fall into Euro-pop drivel, only barely managing to encapsualate the sound of the early 90s they are trying to reminicise. Tracks worth hearing are - Heart Failure, The Beat Is and The Right Thing. Apart from that, this album has fallen into the pile of dusty one listeners never likely to be picked up again.The Big Pink -
This album reminds me of old whilst managing to sound new. Sounds weird but on listening, for anyone in their twenties or above it brings back memories of the sounds that were roaming around in the early 90s just as rave was fading away somewhat, or that was simply being ignored by those who preferred their music with a guitar and not just bass and synth or any other electronic device that came to hand. The thing whilst maintaining this raw sound, there is a bit of a touch of that scene inscribed into the music as well, the influence of growing up in these days has certainly had an effect on the band. 'Dominos' was what made this band known to the wider public, but check out 'Love in Vain' and 'A Brief History of Love'.More soon...
