Tom The Lion - Sleep
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Remember when music sounded otherworldly without being confined to dullards in bedsits wanking away unwanted songwriting weight? Let's pipe up with Mark Hollis' Talk Talk, David Sylvian's Rain Tree Crow and solo work, that first James Blake album, Radiohead's In Rainbows and anything Billy Mackenzie drenched his vocals with. I'm not saying Tom The Lion hits those heights but he's not far off on much of Sleep. Recently acclaimed by the Rough Trade shops as their album of the month and the follow-up to his double 10" E.P.s (boxed as The Adventures Of Tom The Lion), Sleep is brimming with invention, intent and intensity and straddles the void between bedsit-pop and overblown stadium-rock that taints our scene today. Warm, resonating, slightly left of centre songs that build into something worthwhile, rather than sputtering to an abrupt halt, there is much to commend on Sleep. Beholden, Motorcade and the title-track all show Tom's ability to weave a colourful tapestry of melodies that demand repeated listening, with much of the album strong enough to warrant a knowing nod and a press of the repeat button at least once or twice. Get your head around his unusual diction that could best be described as 'affected' and you'll be seeing out the old year and welcoming in a few more with this effort.
King Creosote - From Scotland With Love
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Until his involvement with Jon Hopkins on 2011's lovely Diamond Mine album, Kenny Anderson aka King Creosote was a relative unknown outside of Scotland, a travesty for sure. On the strength of this soundtrack album created for a documentary film of the same name and released as part of the Commonwealth Games 2014 celebrations based in Glasgow, KC could well be drinking his favourite tipple from a crystal-cut champagne glass by the end of the year - awards rolling in, plaudits from critics by the truckload and healthy sales achieved. Somehow though, one imagines that doesn't bother the man one jot. What matters is the superb music and in many songs on From Scotland With Love, he's got it in spades. Easily one of the tracks of the year provides the album's centrepiece - For One Night Only might not possess anything so churlish as a chorus but it does include a wistful intro and a fully-blown stone-wall belter of a build-up throughout. Biographical and intimate, Pauper's Dough is the album's socially-aware folk anthem, Largs is like one whooping great polka of joy while the strings-laced One Floor Down is another slice of pop genius. If you can seek out the expanded double-vinyl edition, do.
To Rococo Rot - Instrument
★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
For the uninitiated, Germany's To Rococo Rot don't follow any stereotypical path of other Teutonic outfits - you won't find brutal electronic beats or precision performance art here - moreover you're more likely to feel reflective and relaxed after a dose of their organic experimentation. With avant-garde guitarist and luminary Arto Lindsay on board, you'd be forgiven that this might be more left-field than ever. But, think again. Instrument is soft, lush and forgiving for the most part with many tracks merely atmospheric vignettes aimed at the mind more than the feet. In fact only the short Sunrise resembles anything atonal with the rest of the album similar to just about anything Bureau B is putting out. The exceptions are the Lindsay vocal collaborations such as Classify and Many Descriptions and the closing drone-track The Longest Escalator In The World, all of which twitch and buzz past in a sedentary manner. Of the remaining pieces, Down In The Traffic bears a few hallmarks from prog-rock and Baritone almost, almost, passes muster as a dance-track for a few seconds. Intriguing.
Slow Club - Complete Surrender
★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Three albums in and Sheffield's answer to The Magic Numbers continue their quest to fuse atmospheric balladry and earnest electronica without breaking too much sweat or resting on their laurels. The radio-song Everything Is New should be familiar to you by now - 6Music have caned it a few times recently - and a few others might just become your favouritist newbies in the coming months. For example the album's opener Tears Of Joy, as swoon-some as you can get from a hybrid of weepy white-collar soul, and the haunting Carmel-esque Not Mine To Love, a single-in-waiting if ever there was one. We see a return of the dreaded shuffle-beat for the upbeat The Pieces and things get quite frisky on the nu-disco stomping title-track before the album slows right down for the finale of a couple of forgettable numbers and the better five-minute curtain-call Wanderer Wandering. While the album can be hailed as something of a success, Slow Club's u.s.p. isn't as clear-cut as the aforementioned Magic Numbers or other bands with a similar approach to emotional harmonies. Just how many duos do we need in pop-music right now? Well, if there's a cull planned, Slow Club should be excused - Complete Surrender has enough poise and plus points to save them from the guillotine.
La Roux - Trouble In Paradise
★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Girls just want to have fun - we know this because Cyndi Lauper proclaimed this some thirty years ago. On the opening track of one Elly Jackson's likeable second album, the same song has been appealingly rewritten as Uptight Downtown, in melody if not in subject-matter. Yes, La Roux hasn't changed a great deal in five years since her debut material hit the stores in 2009 - there are still assured nods to the '80s, still pin-sharp songs and still Elly Jackson - but the little that has changed is noticeable. The upfront histrionics of smash-hit Bulletproof have been silenced, there is just Jackson (Ben Langmaid is no longer part of the line-up) and her voice has been calmed to afford the rich velveteen melodies on offer here. But that's progress in some quarters and Jackson may well have eschewed the services of Langmaid but this hasn't stopped her mixing up a pleasant long-player. Lyrically cheesy (I met him through a dancer/I didn't know he was a tropical chancer) but musically positive, Trouble in Paradise is a retro dream for those old enough to remember Thompson Twins, Paul Haig, Fashion, Heaven 17, Pat Benatar et al first time around and liberating to appease a new generation of La Roux aficionados. Those in the middle might have already left the building however, wallowing in the 'delights' of Lana Del Rey or First Aid Kit. That's pop-music, folks.
Nina Persson - Animal Heart
★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Mention Swedish pop outfit The Cardigans to many and they'll get all dewy-eyed at the thought of '90s hits Your Favourite Game, Erase/Rewind, Carnival and the ubiquitous Lovefool. But after two or three decent albums and a handful of hits, The Cardigans imploded and singer Nina Persson created a solo pseudonym in the shape of A Camp. Animal Heart isn't, therefore, the singer-songwriter's first attempt at going it alone and probably won't be her last - The Cardigans are officially on hold again. Her music isn't that far removed from Chrissie Hynde's solo work or Saint Etienne's melodramatic pop - she's all grown up and grounded these days and clearly has an ear for verse-chorus-verse-chorus etc etc. Yet while there are some truly decent songs across the album, including the title-track, Dreaming Of Houses and the punchy Food For The Beast, I'm left wondering. Would anybody care about this if it were not Persson at the helm? Apart from dedicated fans of course, I remain unconvinced.
Stephen Steinbrink - Arranged Waves
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Arizonian songwriter Steinbrink seems to have ducked under more radars than an exocet, though quite how is anyone's guess. His newest set is his umpteenth album in seven years but his first for Manchester indie Melodic and what a start. Lovers of sweetly-sung harmonic acoustic-pop a la Thorns, Iron and Wine or Jayhawks ought to be queuing around the block for this peach of an album. Starting things off are two spot-on mid-paced ballads Now You See Everything and Animate Dust, both of which set up what is an unexpected journey through the mind of a man who can clearly craft a pretty tune or seven. Perhaps because his oeuvre hardly fits in with the Jack White-obsessed world we live in and he sounds like he couldn't punch his way out of a soaked paper bag, Steinbrink isn't going to strike a chord with many at present, even those who seek solace with strummers Passenger, Sheeran, Howard and the like - the difference here is that, unlike those cod-folk cronies, this now-Washington based crooner has made a very favourable contender for a few end-of-year album lists. He'll make it onto mine.
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Remember when music sounded otherworldly without being confined to dullards in bedsits wanking away unwanted songwriting weight? Let's pipe up with Mark Hollis' Talk Talk, David Sylvian's Rain Tree Crow and solo work, that first James Blake album, Radiohead's In Rainbows and anything Billy Mackenzie drenched his vocals with. I'm not saying Tom The Lion hits those heights but he's not far off on much of Sleep. Recently acclaimed by the Rough Trade shops as their album of the month and the follow-up to his double 10" E.P.s (boxed as The Adventures Of Tom The Lion), Sleep is brimming with invention, intent and intensity and straddles the void between bedsit-pop and overblown stadium-rock that taints our scene today. Warm, resonating, slightly left of centre songs that build into something worthwhile, rather than sputtering to an abrupt halt, there is much to commend on Sleep. Beholden, Motorcade and the title-track all show Tom's ability to weave a colourful tapestry of melodies that demand repeated listening, with much of the album strong enough to warrant a knowing nod and a press of the repeat button at least once or twice. Get your head around his unusual diction that could best be described as 'affected' and you'll be seeing out the old year and welcoming in a few more with this effort.
King Creosote - From Scotland With Love
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Until his involvement with Jon Hopkins on 2011's lovely Diamond Mine album, Kenny Anderson aka King Creosote was a relative unknown outside of Scotland, a travesty for sure. On the strength of this soundtrack album created for a documentary film of the same name and released as part of the Commonwealth Games 2014 celebrations based in Glasgow, KC could well be drinking his favourite tipple from a crystal-cut champagne glass by the end of the year - awards rolling in, plaudits from critics by the truckload and healthy sales achieved. Somehow though, one imagines that doesn't bother the man one jot. What matters is the superb music and in many songs on From Scotland With Love, he's got it in spades. Easily one of the tracks of the year provides the album's centrepiece - For One Night Only might not possess anything so churlish as a chorus but it does include a wistful intro and a fully-blown stone-wall belter of a build-up throughout. Biographical and intimate, Pauper's Dough is the album's socially-aware folk anthem, Largs is like one whooping great polka of joy while the strings-laced One Floor Down is another slice of pop genius. If you can seek out the expanded double-vinyl edition, do.
To Rococo Rot - Instrument
★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
For the uninitiated, Germany's To Rococo Rot don't follow any stereotypical path of other Teutonic outfits - you won't find brutal electronic beats or precision performance art here - moreover you're more likely to feel reflective and relaxed after a dose of their organic experimentation. With avant-garde guitarist and luminary Arto Lindsay on board, you'd be forgiven that this might be more left-field than ever. But, think again. Instrument is soft, lush and forgiving for the most part with many tracks merely atmospheric vignettes aimed at the mind more than the feet. In fact only the short Sunrise resembles anything atonal with the rest of the album similar to just about anything Bureau B is putting out. The exceptions are the Lindsay vocal collaborations such as Classify and Many Descriptions and the closing drone-track The Longest Escalator In The World, all of which twitch and buzz past in a sedentary manner. Of the remaining pieces, Down In The Traffic bears a few hallmarks from prog-rock and Baritone almost, almost, passes muster as a dance-track for a few seconds. Intriguing.
Slow Club - Complete Surrender
★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Three albums in and Sheffield's answer to The Magic Numbers continue their quest to fuse atmospheric balladry and earnest electronica without breaking too much sweat or resting on their laurels. The radio-song Everything Is New should be familiar to you by now - 6Music have caned it a few times recently - and a few others might just become your favouritist newbies in the coming months. For example the album's opener Tears Of Joy, as swoon-some as you can get from a hybrid of weepy white-collar soul, and the haunting Carmel-esque Not Mine To Love, a single-in-waiting if ever there was one. We see a return of the dreaded shuffle-beat for the upbeat The Pieces and things get quite frisky on the nu-disco stomping title-track before the album slows right down for the finale of a couple of forgettable numbers and the better five-minute curtain-call Wanderer Wandering. While the album can be hailed as something of a success, Slow Club's u.s.p. isn't as clear-cut as the aforementioned Magic Numbers or other bands with a similar approach to emotional harmonies. Just how many duos do we need in pop-music right now? Well, if there's a cull planned, Slow Club should be excused - Complete Surrender has enough poise and plus points to save them from the guillotine.
La Roux - Trouble In Paradise
★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Girls just want to have fun - we know this because Cyndi Lauper proclaimed this some thirty years ago. On the opening track of one Elly Jackson's likeable second album, the same song has been appealingly rewritten as Uptight Downtown, in melody if not in subject-matter. Yes, La Roux hasn't changed a great deal in five years since her debut material hit the stores in 2009 - there are still assured nods to the '80s, still pin-sharp songs and still Elly Jackson - but the little that has changed is noticeable. The upfront histrionics of smash-hit Bulletproof have been silenced, there is just Jackson (Ben Langmaid is no longer part of the line-up) and her voice has been calmed to afford the rich velveteen melodies on offer here. But that's progress in some quarters and Jackson may well have eschewed the services of Langmaid but this hasn't stopped her mixing up a pleasant long-player. Lyrically cheesy (I met him through a dancer/I didn't know he was a tropical chancer) but musically positive, Trouble in Paradise is a retro dream for those old enough to remember Thompson Twins, Paul Haig, Fashion, Heaven 17, Pat Benatar et al first time around and liberating to appease a new generation of La Roux aficionados. Those in the middle might have already left the building however, wallowing in the 'delights' of Lana Del Rey or First Aid Kit. That's pop-music, folks.
Nina Persson - Animal Heart
★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Mention Swedish pop outfit The Cardigans to many and they'll get all dewy-eyed at the thought of '90s hits Your Favourite Game, Erase/Rewind, Carnival and the ubiquitous Lovefool. But after two or three decent albums and a handful of hits, The Cardigans imploded and singer Nina Persson created a solo pseudonym in the shape of A Camp. Animal Heart isn't, therefore, the singer-songwriter's first attempt at going it alone and probably won't be her last - The Cardigans are officially on hold again. Her music isn't that far removed from Chrissie Hynde's solo work or Saint Etienne's melodramatic pop - she's all grown up and grounded these days and clearly has an ear for verse-chorus-verse-chorus etc etc. Yet while there are some truly decent songs across the album, including the title-track, Dreaming Of Houses and the punchy Food For The Beast, I'm left wondering. Would anybody care about this if it were not Persson at the helm? Apart from dedicated fans of course, I remain unconvinced.
Stephen Steinbrink - Arranged Waves
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Arizonian songwriter Steinbrink seems to have ducked under more radars than an exocet, though quite how is anyone's guess. His newest set is his umpteenth album in seven years but his first for Manchester indie Melodic and what a start. Lovers of sweetly-sung harmonic acoustic-pop a la Thorns, Iron and Wine or Jayhawks ought to be queuing around the block for this peach of an album. Starting things off are two spot-on mid-paced ballads Now You See Everything and Animate Dust, both of which set up what is an unexpected journey through the mind of a man who can clearly craft a pretty tune or seven. Perhaps because his oeuvre hardly fits in with the Jack White-obsessed world we live in and he sounds like he couldn't punch his way out of a soaked paper bag, Steinbrink isn't going to strike a chord with many at present, even those who seek solace with strummers Passenger, Sheeran, Howard and the like - the difference here is that, unlike those cod-folk cronies, this now-Washington based crooner has made a very favourable contender for a few end-of-year album lists. He'll make it onto mine.