Pink Floyd - The Endless River - EMI - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Following on from the band's last full-length album The Division Bell and indeed David Gilmour's dalliances as a solo performer and collaborator with The Orb, Pink Floyd finally get round to unleashing the makings of a 'proper' album. Well, 'proper' as in it has the words Floyd and Pink on the cover. The Endless River is essentially a long drawn-out assemblage of offcuts and outtakes from The Division Bell sessions in the '90s, right up to new recently-composed passages designed to glue the whole thing together. It's exactly as you'd imagine - the first piece is an intro that sets the tone for the second track which barely breaks step in much the same way as Shine On You Crazy Diamond, with the occasional trademark Gilmour guitar-squeal and funereal beat. You wouldn't really want Pink Floyd to break sweat with ribcage-scaring dubstep or a guest slot from Kanye West, but some deviation might have been nice. Whatever, to paraphrase track three, The Endless River does indeed Ebb and Flow, often pleasingly, seldom randomly. Anisina is rather pretty but, barring one piece on here, it's crying out for a song - The Endless River is almost entirely instrumental, recalling the band's earlier more exploratory works. But it ain't no Animals, Meddle or, natch, Dark Side Of The Moon - it's the swansong of an act that is as likely to tour again as Led Zeppelin are to soundtrack the next John Lewis advert. On Louder Than Words, they wearily proclaim "we bitch and we fight../ with world-weary grace, we've taken our place...". In music history, regardless of how good or bad The Endless River is, Pink Floyd remain one of the most influential outfits this nation has produced.
Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways - Roswell - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
The premise seemed straightforward enough - to record eight new songs in eight musically-revered cities with guests (members of Cheap Trick, Scream and Death Cab For Cutie, as well as Joe Walsh). Oh and a film-crew in tow. Thing is, Sonic Highways promises much but frequently drives down too many cul-de-sacs for its own good. In short, this album isn't a patch on Wasting Light, The Colour and the Shape or the jaunty debut. And why should it be? Well, after such a pin-sharp catalogue, Foo Fighters' reputation precedes them and we expect them to deliver. Thankfully, after the lacklustre opener Something From Nothing, The Feast and the Famine jettisons the album out of the bland and into the mutli-textural we've come to expect - a powerhouse Foos epic that'll light up a few stadiums before next year is out, for sure. Sonic Highways has its moments of power-pop but as with Subterranean and In The Clear, Dave Grohl's usually-reliable songwriting prowess wavers. On the other hand, I Am A River is another prospect altogether - a huge seven-minute epic that gradually builds into a fist-pumping anthem that might be the band's signature track for a long while to come. When its good, Sonic Highways is very good but when it isn't (nearly half of it) then it truly isn't.
Cool Ghouls - A Swirling Fire Burning Through The Rye - Empty Cellar - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
San Francisco acid-pop outfit jangles its way through ten harmony-filled Byrds-inspired efforts that recalls what Temples et al have been doing for a while now. It's rather good in places - opening gambit And It Grows sounds like Your Gold Dress by Dukes Of Stratosphear and pretty much anything labelled 'psychedelic', while The Mile and What a Dream I Had comprise equal parts The Who and The Beatles - enough said. Despite being incredibly retro, songs such as Orange Light and Across The River are by turns contemporary and welcoming, proving that Cool Ghouls aren't all about parody at all, just homage.
Movie Star Junkies - Evil Moods - Voodoo Rhythm - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
It may be wrong to judge a record by its sleeve, even its label. But when an album comes dressed in something straight out of the '60s and appears on an imprint called Voodoo Rhythm, you'll be guessing that rock and roll of a slightly rough, ready and tribal nature will burst forth from the speakers. And what did I tell you? Movie Star Junkies were all set to support Ty Segall on his UK tour at the time of writing, which also tells you all you may need to know about the contents of Evil Moods. Kinda druggy garage-rock that reminds me of Gallon Drunk had they been signed to Jack White's Third Man Records. More of a phenomena than a collection of memorable songs, Evil Moods is psych-blues bluster primed for ear-splitting than heart-warming. Rising is a top tune, mind.
Villalog - Space Trash - Klangbad Records - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Faust's Klangbad imprint presents the fourth album by Austrian motorik prog-crazies Villalog which draws from German Krautrock heritage - there's just about every Can-inspired riff or hook imaginable on this intriguing, if somewhat disjointed excursion into sound. Not unlike the UK's superb Eat Lights Become Lights, Villalog vent an unyielding progressive spleen, pausing only to recover breath with the closing hypnotic drone-rocker Wall Of Echoes. By this point, you have become putty in their hands - all preceding seven pieces indicate a propensity to crank up the drums (analogue and digital) and trigger pulsating arpeggios from all manner of dark recesses of Villalog's collective minds. Longest track Bassknopf is rather like listening to a condensed version of the whole album and Platscher Platscher wouldn't sound alien on a Factory Floor b-side, such is its percussive bent. Overall, one to try your patience with, in a good way.
Royksopp - The Inevitable End - Cooking Vinyl - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Whatever happened to Norway's glacial electro-popsters? In debut-album Melody AM, they had a pension for life yet chucked the winning template of smooth, cool and memorable rave-lite anthems out of the plane window in favour of writing club-anthems that weren't. Follow-up The Misunderstanding had a few moments, while Junior and Senior had too much filler to be really considered for album-of-the-year lists. So to The Inevitable End, supposedly the duo's last album as Royksopp. Rather than re-invent the wheel, the pair have enlisted guest vocalists Robyn, Jamie Irrepressible and Ryan James aka Man Without Country to provide lyrical support to a mix of top-notch electronica and unimpressive meanderings. Admittedly, Sordid Affair is more in-keeping with all that's great about Royksopp - a chilly-disco pounder that relies on subtlety rather than the ham-fisted beats found on Monument. Save Me with Susanne Sundfor is also sweetly sung and boasts a killer chorus yet the singer's other contribution Running To The Sea is like a gopping Eurovision techno joke that has backfired badly. The Inevitable End is less poppy than its two predecessors but no less listenable - the final pair of songs are mournful epics that round off Royksopp's album career in style.
Cheryl - Only Human - Polydor - ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Now here's a shocker - the opening piano-driven Intro to this album is actually rather lovely, a little like Moby's God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters with a speech from philosopher Alan Watts sampled over it. The next shocker is Live Life Now which wouldn't sound amiss on the new Royksopp album - tough club-electro with a dark refrain throughout? What has happened to the usually tiresome Cheryl Cole? Well sadly, not a great deal - as soon as the third 'song' veers into earshot, I'm reliving just about every bloody pop-album around right now. It's About Time sounds like Jessie J or Taylor Swift on quaaludes or any other hi-pitched whiner around right now. So relax people, Only Human is still only Cheryl Cole, minus surname (makes sense) and in a phase of reinvention and regeneration that isn't a huge change after all. There's loads of 'fucking' this and 'fucking' that, hideous Eurovision ballads, faux r 'n' b rhythms, sub-Kylie disco and heinous lyrical couplets that may just incite self-immolation. "..let's get scandalous, infamous and dangerous...". Yeah whatever. It's two more stars than she'd normally get but, to quote the lass herself, it feels so fucking good to say I swear, that I don't care.....
Following on from the band's last full-length album The Division Bell and indeed David Gilmour's dalliances as a solo performer and collaborator with The Orb, Pink Floyd finally get round to unleashing the makings of a 'proper' album. Well, 'proper' as in it has the words Floyd and Pink on the cover. The Endless River is essentially a long drawn-out assemblage of offcuts and outtakes from The Division Bell sessions in the '90s, right up to new recently-composed passages designed to glue the whole thing together. It's exactly as you'd imagine - the first piece is an intro that sets the tone for the second track which barely breaks step in much the same way as Shine On You Crazy Diamond, with the occasional trademark Gilmour guitar-squeal and funereal beat. You wouldn't really want Pink Floyd to break sweat with ribcage-scaring dubstep or a guest slot from Kanye West, but some deviation might have been nice. Whatever, to paraphrase track three, The Endless River does indeed Ebb and Flow, often pleasingly, seldom randomly. Anisina is rather pretty but, barring one piece on here, it's crying out for a song - The Endless River is almost entirely instrumental, recalling the band's earlier more exploratory works. But it ain't no Animals, Meddle or, natch, Dark Side Of The Moon - it's the swansong of an act that is as likely to tour again as Led Zeppelin are to soundtrack the next John Lewis advert. On Louder Than Words, they wearily proclaim "we bitch and we fight../ with world-weary grace, we've taken our place...". In music history, regardless of how good or bad The Endless River is, Pink Floyd remain one of the most influential outfits this nation has produced.
Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways - Roswell - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
The premise seemed straightforward enough - to record eight new songs in eight musically-revered cities with guests (members of Cheap Trick, Scream and Death Cab For Cutie, as well as Joe Walsh). Oh and a film-crew in tow. Thing is, Sonic Highways promises much but frequently drives down too many cul-de-sacs for its own good. In short, this album isn't a patch on Wasting Light, The Colour and the Shape or the jaunty debut. And why should it be? Well, after such a pin-sharp catalogue, Foo Fighters' reputation precedes them and we expect them to deliver. Thankfully, after the lacklustre opener Something From Nothing, The Feast and the Famine jettisons the album out of the bland and into the mutli-textural we've come to expect - a powerhouse Foos epic that'll light up a few stadiums before next year is out, for sure. Sonic Highways has its moments of power-pop but as with Subterranean and In The Clear, Dave Grohl's usually-reliable songwriting prowess wavers. On the other hand, I Am A River is another prospect altogether - a huge seven-minute epic that gradually builds into a fist-pumping anthem that might be the band's signature track for a long while to come. When its good, Sonic Highways is very good but when it isn't (nearly half of it) then it truly isn't.
Cool Ghouls - A Swirling Fire Burning Through The Rye - Empty Cellar - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
San Francisco acid-pop outfit jangles its way through ten harmony-filled Byrds-inspired efforts that recalls what Temples et al have been doing for a while now. It's rather good in places - opening gambit And It Grows sounds like Your Gold Dress by Dukes Of Stratosphear and pretty much anything labelled 'psychedelic', while The Mile and What a Dream I Had comprise equal parts The Who and The Beatles - enough said. Despite being incredibly retro, songs such as Orange Light and Across The River are by turns contemporary and welcoming, proving that Cool Ghouls aren't all about parody at all, just homage.
Movie Star Junkies - Evil Moods - Voodoo Rhythm - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
It may be wrong to judge a record by its sleeve, even its label. But when an album comes dressed in something straight out of the '60s and appears on an imprint called Voodoo Rhythm, you'll be guessing that rock and roll of a slightly rough, ready and tribal nature will burst forth from the speakers. And what did I tell you? Movie Star Junkies were all set to support Ty Segall on his UK tour at the time of writing, which also tells you all you may need to know about the contents of Evil Moods. Kinda druggy garage-rock that reminds me of Gallon Drunk had they been signed to Jack White's Third Man Records. More of a phenomena than a collection of memorable songs, Evil Moods is psych-blues bluster primed for ear-splitting than heart-warming. Rising is a top tune, mind.
Villalog - Space Trash - Klangbad Records - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Faust's Klangbad imprint presents the fourth album by Austrian motorik prog-crazies Villalog which draws from German Krautrock heritage - there's just about every Can-inspired riff or hook imaginable on this intriguing, if somewhat disjointed excursion into sound. Not unlike the UK's superb Eat Lights Become Lights, Villalog vent an unyielding progressive spleen, pausing only to recover breath with the closing hypnotic drone-rocker Wall Of Echoes. By this point, you have become putty in their hands - all preceding seven pieces indicate a propensity to crank up the drums (analogue and digital) and trigger pulsating arpeggios from all manner of dark recesses of Villalog's collective minds. Longest track Bassknopf is rather like listening to a condensed version of the whole album and Platscher Platscher wouldn't sound alien on a Factory Floor b-side, such is its percussive bent. Overall, one to try your patience with, in a good way.
Royksopp - The Inevitable End - Cooking Vinyl - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Whatever happened to Norway's glacial electro-popsters? In debut-album Melody AM, they had a pension for life yet chucked the winning template of smooth, cool and memorable rave-lite anthems out of the plane window in favour of writing club-anthems that weren't. Follow-up The Misunderstanding had a few moments, while Junior and Senior had too much filler to be really considered for album-of-the-year lists. So to The Inevitable End, supposedly the duo's last album as Royksopp. Rather than re-invent the wheel, the pair have enlisted guest vocalists Robyn, Jamie Irrepressible and Ryan James aka Man Without Country to provide lyrical support to a mix of top-notch electronica and unimpressive meanderings. Admittedly, Sordid Affair is more in-keeping with all that's great about Royksopp - a chilly-disco pounder that relies on subtlety rather than the ham-fisted beats found on Monument. Save Me with Susanne Sundfor is also sweetly sung and boasts a killer chorus yet the singer's other contribution Running To The Sea is like a gopping Eurovision techno joke that has backfired badly. The Inevitable End is less poppy than its two predecessors but no less listenable - the final pair of songs are mournful epics that round off Royksopp's album career in style.
Cheryl - Only Human - Polydor - ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Now here's a shocker - the opening piano-driven Intro to this album is actually rather lovely, a little like Moby's God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters with a speech from philosopher Alan Watts sampled over it. The next shocker is Live Life Now which wouldn't sound amiss on the new Royksopp album - tough club-electro with a dark refrain throughout? What has happened to the usually tiresome Cheryl Cole? Well sadly, not a great deal - as soon as the third 'song' veers into earshot, I'm reliving just about every bloody pop-album around right now. It's About Time sounds like Jessie J or Taylor Swift on quaaludes or any other hi-pitched whiner around right now. So relax people, Only Human is still only Cheryl Cole, minus surname (makes sense) and in a phase of reinvention and regeneration that isn't a huge change after all. There's loads of 'fucking' this and 'fucking' that, hideous Eurovision ballads, faux r 'n' b rhythms, sub-Kylie disco and heinous lyrical couplets that may just incite self-immolation. "..let's get scandalous, infamous and dangerous...". Yeah whatever. It's two more stars than she'd normally get but, to quote the lass herself, it feels so fucking good to say I swear, that I don't care.....