The Fall - New Facts Emerge
It remains to be seen just how long The Fall's enigmatic vocal toreador can continue in his current state. One listen to this album's opening snippet Segue suggests that Mark E. Smith is ensconced in a vat of alcoholic stupor, an underlying theme that continues throughout New Facts Emerge. Indecipherable hollering, fist-flying railing and riffs straight out of the butchers ought to spell a disaster. But as with every Fall album east of Extricate, Smith's charges carry it off in an orchestrated fug of fuck-yous and beer-soaked calamity. Fol De Rol might just be the band's best moment for twenty years. Does it matter? Because soon after comes another barrage of apopletic shredding and bawled idents from the bowels of Prestwich on Brillo De Facto. And then there's eight minutes of drug-addled psychedelia that is Couples vs Jobless Mid 30s. It's The Fall. 7/10
Ratboy - Scum
After just a few seconds of Turn Around M8, I'm reminded of EMF, Audio Bullys and The Wombats. I'm not sure if this is a good thing but suffice to say that Scum already sounds scarily dated. This is an album of wall-to-wall swinging-limbed indie-rap anthems that swagger around like Damon Albarn on poppers and seem set to usher in the next generation of rebellious students out for a piss-up and a shit in the neighbour's garden. It's as relentless as Carter USM, as bolshie as Beastie Boys and as assured as any Essex boy with a studio might sound when in a rage. It's great fun in places, irritating in others (due mainly to lack of variation) and the last thing you'd want to play after rolling off your object of desire from the previous night's uni disco. An EP might have been enough. 5/10
Girl Ray - Earl Grey
Occasionally an album will drift into earshot that not only totally deserves its plaudits, it also confounds expectations. An antidote to the brutality of Savages (who admittedly hit the spot more often than not), Girl Ray sing harmonies like angels, craft a tune like masters and sound like they've been writing albums for a decade already. Earl Grey is a few parts lo-fi and many parts slick, a mixture of soft-rock, West Coast harmonies and wistful woozy surf-rock that reminds me of The Thrills, Allo Darlin' and Cate Le Bon - and quite, quite delicious. Stupid Things, Don't Go Back At Ten and Cutting Shapes are the centrepiece trilogy of this rather fine album. And just when you think things have quitened down, head to the 13-minute epic title-track for some serious nape-hair tickling trilling and a journey back to a time when 4AD had Cocteau Twins, Breeders, Bettie Serveert, That Dog and Insides on its books. Seriously. 9/10
Arcade Fire - Everything Now
As stadium-filling outfits go, Arcade Fire ain't the worst. For a start, they pump up the kitsch jams just 45 seconds into this new album with a crowd-pleasing discofied title-track straight out of an era when Una Paloma Blanco and Y Viva Espana soared above holiday crowds arguing over the prawn cocktail and Babycham. Signs of Life repeats the same formula again while Creature Comfort goes all Numan on us and restores an element of belief that Arcade Fire are worth the admission. And they are for the most part. Everything Now surpasses the hit-and-miss Reflektor but doesn't repeat the dizzying heights of the Grammy-bothering The Suburbs, although it comes close in places. Oh and Win Butler's vocals still remind me of Blue Aeroplanes' Gerard Langley. If anything, the whole thing suffers from too many interludes and soundbites at a point when an album needs bangers, but Electric Blue and Put Your Money On Me more than make up for it. 7/10
It remains to be seen just how long The Fall's enigmatic vocal toreador can continue in his current state. One listen to this album's opening snippet Segue suggests that Mark E. Smith is ensconced in a vat of alcoholic stupor, an underlying theme that continues throughout New Facts Emerge. Indecipherable hollering, fist-flying railing and riffs straight out of the butchers ought to spell a disaster. But as with every Fall album east of Extricate, Smith's charges carry it off in an orchestrated fug of fuck-yous and beer-soaked calamity. Fol De Rol might just be the band's best moment for twenty years. Does it matter? Because soon after comes another barrage of apopletic shredding and bawled idents from the bowels of Prestwich on Brillo De Facto. And then there's eight minutes of drug-addled psychedelia that is Couples vs Jobless Mid 30s. It's The Fall. 7/10
Ratboy - Scum
After just a few seconds of Turn Around M8, I'm reminded of EMF, Audio Bullys and The Wombats. I'm not sure if this is a good thing but suffice to say that Scum already sounds scarily dated. This is an album of wall-to-wall swinging-limbed indie-rap anthems that swagger around like Damon Albarn on poppers and seem set to usher in the next generation of rebellious students out for a piss-up and a shit in the neighbour's garden. It's as relentless as Carter USM, as bolshie as Beastie Boys and as assured as any Essex boy with a studio might sound when in a rage. It's great fun in places, irritating in others (due mainly to lack of variation) and the last thing you'd want to play after rolling off your object of desire from the previous night's uni disco. An EP might have been enough. 5/10
Girl Ray - Earl Grey
Occasionally an album will drift into earshot that not only totally deserves its plaudits, it also confounds expectations. An antidote to the brutality of Savages (who admittedly hit the spot more often than not), Girl Ray sing harmonies like angels, craft a tune like masters and sound like they've been writing albums for a decade already. Earl Grey is a few parts lo-fi and many parts slick, a mixture of soft-rock, West Coast harmonies and wistful woozy surf-rock that reminds me of The Thrills, Allo Darlin' and Cate Le Bon - and quite, quite delicious. Stupid Things, Don't Go Back At Ten and Cutting Shapes are the centrepiece trilogy of this rather fine album. And just when you think things have quitened down, head to the 13-minute epic title-track for some serious nape-hair tickling trilling and a journey back to a time when 4AD had Cocteau Twins, Breeders, Bettie Serveert, That Dog and Insides on its books. Seriously. 9/10
Arcade Fire - Everything Now
As stadium-filling outfits go, Arcade Fire ain't the worst. For a start, they pump up the kitsch jams just 45 seconds into this new album with a crowd-pleasing discofied title-track straight out of an era when Una Paloma Blanco and Y Viva Espana soared above holiday crowds arguing over the prawn cocktail and Babycham. Signs of Life repeats the same formula again while Creature Comfort goes all Numan on us and restores an element of belief that Arcade Fire are worth the admission. And they are for the most part. Everything Now surpasses the hit-and-miss Reflektor but doesn't repeat the dizzying heights of the Grammy-bothering The Suburbs, although it comes close in places. Oh and Win Butler's vocals still remind me of Blue Aeroplanes' Gerard Langley. If anything, the whole thing suffers from too many interludes and soundbites at a point when an album needs bangers, but Electric Blue and Put Your Money On Me more than make up for it. 7/10
