Sunday 13 April 2014

Album Review – Cloud Nothings – Here and Nowhere Else

Cloud Nothings are an excellent lo-fi rock band out of Cleveland. A guitar, bass and drums along with Dylan Baldi’s lead vocals. In fact, Cloud Nothings basically started as a one man band of just Baldi, but the band now has permanent bass and drum members too. However, Baldi is clearly still the leader when it comes to the band’s musical direction.

Here and Nowhere Else is a noisy lo-fi racket of an album full of textured rhythmic guitars, grimy, hoarse vocals, and interesting melodic interludes that give some respite from the more punk influenced rock outs. The track “Psychic Trauma” stands out as a great exemplar of all three of these things. The song starts out with a simple, yet catchy guitar riff parading along at a mid-tempo romp before the drums kick the song into hyperdrive with some absolutely ridiculous fills and rolls. Baldi follows the drummer’s lead with some screamy lyrics to match. Excellent track.



The album continues along with some great riff rockers, along with some not so great moments where the lyrics become overpowering and to some extent, detract from the stellar backing tracks. The song “Giving Into Seeing” is a good example of this. The song is like an earlier Cage the Elephant song on cocaine (speaking of which, did you see CTE’s Matt Shultz at Coachella?—yikes!), with a super fast bass riff and solid guitar sub-riffage. However the chorus yelling “SWALLOW,” in this disturbingly nasally, yet throaty voice is off-putting, which is too bad given the quality of the song otherwise. ***edit: this songs freaking rocks

However, the album ends on an absolute dime with “I’m Not Part of Me.” This is as good as it gets in terms of rock and roll. Just take a listen. It’s catchy, just edgy enough, YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THE LYRICS (A+++), and a nice length. Kinda reminds me of lo-fi rockers Ladyhawk, with the more obvious Built to Spill influence. It’s a perfectly crafted little gem ending off a solid album from Cloud Nothings.

8.5/10



Tuesday 8 April 2014

Album Review: Eagulls – Eagulls

Eagulls first caught my ear a few years ago with their awesome rocker “Coffin,” a total party rock anthem with a great bass riff, howling vocals, and a pounding drum beat to match.


With their 2014 self titled debut LP, Eagulls have continued the trend set out by “Coffin.” It’s a noisy, rambunctious post-punk album off dirty, grimy guitars and beats. You can picture the band sweating it out in a basement club in their hometown of Leeds, pounding away at their instruments. Eagulls somehow mix the glistening guitars of shoe gaze with straight up punk bass and drums and an almost New Wave-esque vocal licks. Good luck understanding the lyrics more than 30% of the time.

The album kicks off with three solid post punk tracks, and then the track “Tough Love” really grabs your ear. A great guitar riff really brings some sunshine into an otherwise dark sound, and rather droning vocals.


“Possessed” is the single from the album, and notably the song they played on Letterman. How they managed to get post-punk on Letterman is beyond me, but, hey, sounds good to me! This track has the best guitar riff of 2014 so far! Great guitar solo too.



The album ends with “Soulless Youth,” a track that starts with this weird feedback riff droning rhythmically before the band comes bashing in from behind. The track rips along with screeching guitars and furious drumming before melting down at the end into a tangle of feedback tones. That’s how you end an alb
um!!

7/10

Check this awesome live concert where they play the whole album + "Coffin" !!





Album Review: Foster the People – Supermodel

Coming off their smash hit Torches from 2011, Foster the People had a major challenge to avoid the classic “sophomore slump” on their 2014 release Supermodel. The name of the album provides hints into the muses of Mark Foster, a man pushed from the margins of the music industry right up to the very peak on the back of the success of “Pumped Up Kicks,” otherwise known as the most overplayed song of 2010 AND 2011. The album is about coming to grips with this new fame, with tracks asking “Are You What You Want to Be?” or “Tabloid Super Junkie” or, more obscurely, the track “The Angelic Welcome of Mr. Jones,” invoking Counting Crows’ “Mr. Jones,” which tells the story of a man who thinks fame will bring him friendship and love, when in fact Mr. Jones is just as lonely famous as he is before. (possibly the worst song I've ever posted...oh well it's just so catchy haha)



Musically, Supermodel is a collection of very danceable pop songs and more mellow rock and folk tracks. Tracks like “A Beginner’s Guide to Destroying the Moon” invoke Portugal. The Man’s early work (see Churchmouth), except without the same flair and deepness of a Portugal. The Man song. That’s my issue with the entire album, it all just floats on the surface of your psyche, and fails to make a real impression. You listen to the album, and enjoy dancing along to the catchy pop ditties, but nothing is memorable and attempts to be super mellow on a track like “Fire Escape,” just seem like mediocre attempts at profound song writing. You write pop songs Foster, and you’re damn good at it, so stick to that. Check out “Best Friend” for your daily dose of dance! Love the final horn breakdown just when you think the track is over—what a kick in the musical gut!

5/10

Best track:




Saturday 5 April 2014

Album Review PUP – PUP

I figured that because the new PUP album is being released on April 8th in ‘Merica I’d toss up a little review of their FANTASTIC self titled album that came out a few months ago in Canadia.

PUP is one of those bands that can only really listened to at one volume: really loud. That being said, PUP is far from just noise. Lying under the pure punk aggression are great pop sensibilities and riffs. This is well shown on tracks like “Mabu,” with its awesome noodley high pitched screaming guitar riff nicely offset by tight drumming and a poppy bass riff. Nonetheless, PUP is truly awesome because of the passionate vocals. If you’ve read this blog before, you know how much I LOVE group sung lyrics, and PUP has mastered this. Every track is layered with awesome “woaahs” etc that just scream “we’re all here to party!”



The album rips along at a breakneck pace, but just as your neck is getting sore from trashing about to the first handful of songs, PUP slips in “Yukon,” a five minute, grimy, passionate, slow tempo head banger of a track. I love the great visual lyrics, the awesome guitar (what song this album isn’t awesome for that à see “Cul-de-Sac”), and the absolutely animalistic end to the song with some ridiculous drum fill action that approaches Kurt Dahle status (New Pornos, “The Bleeding Heart Show”). It’s an epic track from an equally epic album.



According to itunes, I’ve listened to this album 48 times. Just gonna end the review there. AMERICA YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT’S COMING! Go buy this album and see these guys live, you won’t regret it.

9.5/10

Favourite Tracks: "Yukon," "Factories," "Lionheart," "Cul de Sac," OKAY THE WHOLE ALBUM