Friday 30 July 2010

Video of the Week - The XX - 'Crystalised' Acoustic


This particular rendition of The XX's 'Crystalised' shows off Oliver and Romy's raw voices and is a different twist on the more electronic sounds of the album.

Tuesday 20 July 2010

The Drums - The Drums, Album Review

The Drums formed in 2008 and moved to New York, following work with other groups previously, they are Jonny Pierce on vocals, his vocals deliver outstanding, simple lyrics with amazing clarity and quality, Jacob Graham and Adam Kessler, on guitars, deliver amazing and addictive scratchy guitar melodies and huge, high bass lines and Connor Hanwick keeps the band in check with his simple, upbeat drumming brilliantly, as this band show us yet another tweak to indie rock with this wonderful blend of indie pop.

'Best Friend' is the first track on the album, it’s an upbeat track, kicked straight into life with upbeat drumming and warm, high bass, the bass gives this track its depth and its brilliance and it sounds like the 80’s at their best. The lovely sections of guitar melodies add even more warmth and another layer of pop brilliance. Pierce’s vocals too are wonderful and the simple lyrics are just as immense.

'Me And The Moon', is more of the same, drums, bass and guitar working together superbly, the track is quicker in rhythm and the lyrics warm the soul, musically awesome, vocally brilliant, with lashings of samples and effects to boot.

'Let’s Go Surfing' is a happy, upbeat track and by now I’m absolutely intoxicated by the drums and bass. Pierce’s vocals are again flawless and the breaks in singing for whistling just broaden your smile even further.

'Book Of Stories' begins with simple high bass before gentle drums and percussion kick in, we hear a different style here, soft vocals and a simple structure, there is a real 1950’s pop meets the 80’s here, the harmonies are catchy, the bass brilliant, the short passages of guitar simple and the addition of gentle synthed keys wonderful, it’s a psychedelic trip of everything that’s great about simple music done well.

'Skippin’ Town', a great track with that fantastic bass and drum collaboration again, fast, high guitar strings, full of effects, brilliantly simple lyrics, great vocals and ultra catchy chorus’s and harmonies. Happiness and brilliance summed up in one amazing track.

'Forever and Ever Amen', uses faster drums, more use of wonderfully high guitar strings and catchy bass setting. Synthed keys add extra layers as each simple layer soon builds and becomes a complex mix of musical excellence. The vocals and lyrics are top notch again and the melodies just add to the pop appeal.

'Down By The Water', the first solemn track, much slower and deeper in sound with plodding bass and gentle percussion, the lyrics for the first time contain sorrow and they are delivered with a real pain and atmosphere through Pierce’s amazing vocal range. This track illustrates the diverse range this group have. This time the keyboards add despair and sadness instead of the pop nature before, the melodies too sadden as the group play with your emotions.

'It Will All End In Tears', is a blend of upbeat drums, high bass and guitar melodies, with contradicting mellow lyrics and desperate, emotion filled vocals, remember The Smiths? This track is a blend of all things great about the Manchester scene I mentioned earlier, yet this group are New Yorkers, it shows great depth, thoughtfulness and class. A very clever track.

'We Tried', is another medley of early pop, the chorus is as full of vocal depth as it is catchy, there is a distance between the instruments and vocals during the verse, before the track explodes with each chorus, bringing the vocals right back with the rest of the group and firing up the tempo, while samples and echoes are thrown in brilliantly for good measure.

'I Need Fun In My Life', is another example of awesome high bass right at the front of the track with just as brilliant drums right behind, passages of guitar melodies here and there added to this and you have to tell yourself this is not New Order, because that amazing sound is there, no doubt about it. More Smith’s style lyrics and the vocals to match round off another fantastic track.

'I’ll Never Drop My Sword', is the first time we here strummed guitars, this coupled with the deep bass and soft percussion and melodic nature provides us with another show of diverse talent. Vocally this track is brilliant as the ranges rise and fall seamlessly with the music also. Another catchy sing-a-long.

'The Future', ends the album and takes everything that has so far been great about this album, high bass riffs, soft guitar riffs and melodic guitar sections, diverse and deep vocals, warming backing harmonies, upbeat drumming and percussion and extremely well written lyrics and chucks it all together into a medley of musical brilliance.

I think it is clear to see that I absolutely love this awesome album. They have managed to take some of the best influences, the UK and more precisely, the Manchester music scene over the last 30 odd years have had to offer, mix it all together and add their own twists and dimensions to what is a catchy, clever and extremely good, unique sound.

Monday 19 July 2010

Florence and the Machine - Cosmic Love Tour 2010, Blackpool

This being my third time seeing the red-headed machine, I knew to expect a memorable and epic performance and was certainly not disappointed. After finding out the line up before the gig I also eagerly anticipated the main support act’s performance -The Drums from New York, and they didn’t disappoint. Having been the first time seeing this band I didn’t know what to expect but they sounded just as good live as they do on their recordings – which is always a good sign!

Front woman Florence Welch, dressed all in white, started the show with ’Howl’ before blasting through ’My Boy Builds Coffins’, ’Girl With One Eye’ and ’Between Two Lungs’ in quick succession. The Southerner wowed the crowd with the power of her voice – and anyone seeing her for the first time will have been blown away by the sound of her live performance.


‘Drumming Song’ was received with a chorus of claps from the crowd, while ’Blinding’ featured Welch wearing a shawl over her head and lit by strobe lights – always the quirky individual. I felt slightly sorry for her when she stated that she was so happy to be performing under Blackpool Tower itself, when in actual fact she was slightly behind it and the whole crowd shouted back at her stating this.

The set design was the same as the previous tour; a floral backdrop and props of bouquets and bird cages littered the stage. The set list was also virtually the same, apart from a change of opening song and maybe a couple of others swopped around in the middle. Before leaving the stage in preparation for the encore she sang two of her biggest hits to date, ‘You’ve Got the Love’ (originally by Candi Station) and ‘Dog Days Are Over’. Both songs received a great reaction from the crowd. For Dog Days Florence had the crowd jump up and down from the chorus (“run fast for your mother” etc) and as this particular gig was situated in the Empress Ballroom the floors were springy and the crowd were bouncing all over the place!

For the encore Florence and her machine performed ‘Kiss With a Fist’ and ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up). It seemed to me that the night had flown by far too quickly, even though she had sang through the entire album and included new songs and songs not featured on the album itself – this was more than likely because everyone was entranced by her and her music that time seemed to whiz by unknowingly. After climbing on top of one of the huge speakers placed at the side of the stage to finish ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)’ she clambered down and left the stage after emotionally thanking the audience. At the previous gig in Manchester she got so emotional she was crying slightly as she did this, and stopped mid-song on the encore to watch the crowd singing back at her and her face was lit up (being her first major solo tour I’m guessing she didn’t expect such an awesome reaction).

I would recommend to anyone to go and see Florence and the Machine themselves as the album, although still sounding near perfect, doesn’t give justice to her live voice and performance when you’re actually there.

I Blame Coco - Evolution Festival 2010

Being a short set at a more low key festival than the likes of Leeds Fest, there isn’t much to comment on. I Blame Coco themselves were just as good as I saw them when they had supported La Roux. I believe the biggest downfall of this particular set was the fact that not many people in the crowd seemed to know who they were, hence very few people danced, moved or sang along with Coco, and it was evident that she noticed this and that this effected her performance as a front woman slightly.

Coco Sumners’ unique voice, in my opinion, is the main selling point of her and her band. She doesn’t sound like many people, if anyone, I’ve heard elsewhere. Her husky yet posh accent gives her a memorable and attractive singing voice.

Even though the band themselves seemed let down by the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd, I still believe they performed well and would definitely pay to go and see them on a tour they were headlining. I was annoyed by the fact people were throwing things lie bottles etc onto the stage, yet admired them for carrying on regardless.

La Roux - Gold Tour 2010, Sheffield

The set started off with support from Jamie Woon. Initially I thought he was good, but as he continued every song seemed to sound the same and I was keen for the next support at to come on and cure the boredom, of which were I Blame Coco, the front woman being Stings daughter. As I’d only heard short parts of their songs on Youtube just before the gig I didn’t expect to be as into the music as actual fans in the room would have been, but I found myself loving the music and live performance and quickly downloaded the free track available when I returned home, after being given a wrist band outside with a link.


Entering the stage to the extended ‘Tigerlily’ introduction, Elly Jackson (singer) sported a full length faux fur cloak of which she soon took off and continued with many different costume changes. After seeing the duo and live band members perform on their previous tour there had been a clear improvement in confidence and overall drive. I was slightly disappointed at the fact the set list was virtually the same, only adding in a couple of extra songs, as along with other people that saw the previous tour I knew what was coming and there was no element of surprise.

Elly herself had improved greatly, dancing around the stage and covering a lot more ground than previously. Her vocals also had seemed to improve, as many people seem to think that she cannot sing well at all, she proves the crowd wrong in her live performances every time. I would personally recommend seeing the group in person before making final judgements on their abilities.

One personal highlight of the gig was the acoustic rendition of ‘Saviour’. Elly stated that this is how she originally wrote the song, as she was brought up playing guitar, taught by her father. This made the gig seem more varied than just the typical electro-pop style and instruments used on the album. The added guitar from Ben on certain songs also created more variety.


The group also covered the Rolling Stones song ‘Under My Thumb’. They made this song sound as if it was their own, and anyone who wouldn’t have known the original could have easily mistaken it for La Roux’s.

As it is the groups biggest hit, beating Michael Jackson to the top spot even on the first week of his death, the crowd all eagerly anticipated them to play ‘Bulletproof’. La roux used this track as the final song of the set, also being the final song of the encore. The track was extended, gaining all the final energy and excitement from the crowd before leaving the stage. The crowd reacted amazingly, just as they did when the band arrived on stage. At this point you could hear the strain on Elly Jackson’s voice, but as it was the final song of the night after an abundance of higher pitched singing it was easily understandable, although the crowd didn’t seem to react or be phased by this.

Overall, in comparison to the previous gig in the Leeds University Refectory, La Roux have shown a huge increase in stage presence, live ability, vocals and much more. Despite Elly Jackson not sporting her trademark quiff hairstyle!