October 2008 Archives

Oasis
Dig Out Your Soul
Genre: Indie
Highlight: I'm Outta Time

IT'S more of the same from mad for it Mancunians Oasis, who've just released their new album and announced a revival of Knebworth-style outdoor gigs for next summer.

Anyone who tells you the Northern rockers ripped off The Beatles is an idiot; in their fifteen years of fame, they've ripped off just about everyone. Annoyingly, they do it better than anyone else in music, and it's from this base that Dig Out Your Soul takes off.

The band's seventh studio album doesn't get off to an amazing start, with the opening trio of tracks sounding like the work of the Dad Rock beast cynics fear Oasis have become. It's worrying to think that signing trendier indie contemporaries Kasabian as special guests on their next tour could actually backfire, by making Oasis seem older than they actually are.

Luckily, Liam and Noel haven't forgotten how to write a catchy tune, and lead single The Shock of the Lightning sees a return to their upbeat - if not anthemic - signature sound. It's a strong song and deserving of its current chart success, but anyone looking for a return to the days of Wonderwall isn't going to find it here.

In fact the best effort by far is melancholic ballad I'm Outta Time, which draws comparison with some of the more underrated recordings used by the band as their earliest B-sides. Although both the opening and closing tracks on Dig Out Your Soul seem stale and outdated, the meat in the middle is a return to vintage Oasis.

If you're into that sort of thing, Dig Out Your Soul is a surprisingly strong Oasis album, and does have a sound that grows on you. Just don't expect anything Earth-shatteringly different, that's all.

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Keane
Perfect Symmetry
Genre: Indie
Highlight: You Haven't Told Me Anything

KEANE are one of those marmite bands; you either love or absolutely loathe these three pop soldiers from Battle, in Sussex. Yet what can't be denied is that - given the storming success their first two albums enjoyed - Perfect Symmetry has an awful lot to live up to.

The band's third work couldn't have come out at a trickier time, with indie-pop contemporaries Coldplay and Travis both having put out stunning comeback albums earlier this year. Keane have reached a crossroads, where they could have happily plied further with the electro feel of Under The Iron Sea or returned to their original, piano-heavy sound. Amazingly, they've ditched both.

Band front man Tom Chaplin must be an Ashes to Ashes fan, because their most recent release really has gone back to the early 1980s. Even the most liberal listeners won't fail to spot bits of Bowie all over Better Than This, or hear hints of synthpop stalwarts like Talk Talk and Tears for Fears in this album's opening tracks.

In fact, you have to wait for the title track before reaching anything recognisably Keane, so anyone hoping for a follow-up to the haunting debut album Hopes and Fears is bound to be disappointed.

Some of the tracks even try - and fail - to incorporate dance music into the mix, but Keane have got to be commended for expanding on their sound far more than Coldplay have with theirs. Predictably, the star of the show is Chaplin's shrill vocals, which are always note-perfect and give an added dimension to some of the admittedly lame lyrics.

Perfect Symmetry is not going to move you in the same way Hopes and Fears did but for fans looking for a bold expansion on the existing Keane sound it's well worth a look.

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"IS the credit crunch now part of our culture? Discuss."

I can just see that one popping up on school exam papers sometime next summer, and although it depresses me hugely, I'd probably concede it is. Thanks largely to the efforts of some of my fellow journalists, the sky really is falling in the minds of British people everywhere.

Yet what really worries me - even more than plummeting house prices, rocketing bills and the prospect of mass unemployment - is the amount of hackneyed phrases used endlessly to describe the turmoil. So in a bold effort to beat the bad times, I've invented the Credit Crunch Drinking Game.

All you need to do is have a television tuned into something like BBC News 24, keep a bottle of something strong nearby, and listen intently. Unfortunately News 24 never actually stops for a break, so in the interests of condemning binge drinking I have to say: play responsibly.

Players get one point for every hackneyed credit crunch phrase uttered, of which "credit crunch" is one. Anything along the lines of "in the current financial climate", "boom and bust", "consumer confidence" or "Iceland" is rewarded by necking a shot in disgust.

Meanwhile, any really weak credit crunch analogies get bonus points, presumably represented by downing entire pints. Anyone familiar with Channel Four News will know the sort of thing; "tigers prowling the financial jungle" is married to footage of actual tigers, in actual jungles.

I'm not entirely sure what the point of the game would be, other than a) passing the time and b) encouraging some of Britain's beleaguered bankers to try it themselves. I also know there are plenty of rules banning me from condoning binge drinking, so for the best results I urge all players to use milk, or orange juice.

Is the credit crunch part of our culture? I've no idea, but I did have fun trying to find out.

Sharleen Spiteri
Melody
Genre: Pop
Highlight: All The Times I've Cried

DENBIGH man Bryn Williams is clearly a lucky bloke. Alongside fame, fortune and knowing a thing about cooking, he's also boyfriend of the sultry singer behind this classy album.

Sharleen Spiteri - better known as the face of pop stalwarts Texas - has finally ditched the band that brought her into the limelight, and for her first solo effort she's clearly taken a few tips from her partner by starting with a killer recipe. Take an instantly recognisable voice, mix with Motown, add a pinch of Portishead and leave to simmer in a recording studio.

Melody, the result, wisely leaves Texas altogether and heads somewhere smoother and very sixties. It's as if Mark Ronson's been busy with Dusty Springfield's back catalogue, and most of the tracks follow in the wake of Welsh star Duffy, who pulled off the same trick first.

I may be biased (Texas triumph In Our Lifetime was the first ever CD I bought) but the fundamental flaw of this album is that it'll grab only the most loyal Texas devotees, and those looking for retro are already catered for.

Sharleen's voice is a thing of beauty, and select songs like All The Times I've Cried are a soothing soundtrack for quiet nights in, but ultimately Melody's not an album you can fall in love with. It's a bold departure from the band that made her name, but most of this album's simply too boring to get my vote.

The recipe was spot on but the ingredients aren't nearly strong enough.

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Travis
Ode to J Smith
Genre: Indie
Highlight: Song to Self

SCOTTISH indie rockers Travis have some rotten luck.
Despite being festival favourites with a likeable line-up and string of anthems behind them, they've always attracted sneers of cynicism from the wider musical world and had to play second fiddle to Coldplay. Why does it always rain on them?

Ode to J Smith is their effort to change all that. It's a new departure - and a new record label - for the foursome behind the likes of Driftwood and Sing, and sees the band adopting a brasher, more experimental sound.

Although by "experimental", Fran Healey and co clearly meant experimenting with styles used by other bands. Judging by early-on numbers such as Something Anything, they've clearly been musing over Muse and feeding Feeder into their iPods. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work.

The end result is you end up searching through the sound, looking longingly for the Travis you remember from Glastonbury all those years ago and never quite finding them. By the time you reach the sleepy sound of Friends, you're ready to give up.

My advice is don't, because weirdly Travis managed to leave two absolute belters at the end. Song to Self, the album's penultimate track, is an epic effort, and bests anything the band have released for at least eight years.

With that sort of outlook, maybe it won't be raining on Travis much longer.

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DESPITE being quite fat I don't actually watch much TV, and that's generally because most of it's really bad.

I would love to say what little time I spend in front of my small screen is spent watching documentaries about the history of modern jazz on BBC Four, interspersed with reruns of Q.I and Have I Got News For You, but I can't. I know that if I sit there for more than an hour my life will disintegrate into a mush of Neighbours, buying electric whisks off QVC and waiting obsessively for the next series of Ashes to Ashes.

Yet last night's TV - and I was too knackered to avoid it - really was a love/hate affair. I could have watched Ghost but instead absent-mindedly flicked onto something called Britain's Got The Pop Factor ... And Possibly A New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice. It sounded awful.

What utter genius! Being shattered, it took me twenty whole minutes to realise the whole thing was a fake, but what a sharply-written fake it was. I normally prefer my comedy a shade rawer and less mainstream, but I'll make an exception for this latest Peter Kay project.

As a parody of the reality contests which have eroded so much of our televisual landscape lately, it made my night.

And it beats watching Ghost.

TWO lucky readers have won tickets to see Welsh wonder Max Boyce following our competition earlier this month.
Denise Thorn, of Llandudno Junction, and Pat Steen, of Llandudno, were both among the many entries who correctly answered that the comedy legend is a fan of Phoenix Nights star Peter Kay.
The competition to see the performance, on October 19, is now closed.

The Verve
Forth
Genre: Indie
Highlight: Judas

WIGAN indie wonders The Verve have a huge reputation to live up to with their latest album, but they've gone Forth and released it anyway.

The northern quartet can count the likes of Lucky Man and Bittersweet Symphony among their back catalogue, and for a time their masterpiece Urban Hymns projected the band far beyond their Britpop roots and onto international stardom. Unfortunately, that time was 1997, and music's changed a lot since.

You would expect Forth, released earlier this month, to borrow both from where Urban Hymns left off and from front man Richard Ashcroft's highly-regarded stint as a solo star, but in fact it reaches far further. Every influence from the Arctic Monkeys to Jimi Hendrix seems to have played a part, and - ironically - many of the songs seem inspired by bands who followed in the foursome's footsteps.

The result is a mishmash of manic and melancholy, avoiding the signature style which made the band's earlier efforts so easy on the ear but leaving a series of songs which reward repeated listening. The only exception is dreadful lead single Love is Noise, where Ashcroft must have employed seagulls to create the main sound effect, and sounds rubbish.

Forth is a grower and a great album, but it doesn't hang together nearly as well as its predecessors. Ashcroft remains a superlative songwriter, but in truth this lacks the edge of his anthemic earlier days.

I'd love to say Verve fans won't be disappointed, but I can't.

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Katy Perry
One Of The Boys
Genre: Pop
Highlight: The video of I Kissed A Girl included as a bonus extra

WHENEVER the BBC get round to making I Love 2008, it's almost a cast-iron certainty this playful popstar will show up somewhere.

Katy Perry has been one of this summer's big sensations, seeing her single I Kissed A Girl storm the singles chart, largely on the back of that video. Red-blooded fans will be delighted to hear the three-minute Nuts-esque movie is included as an extra on this, her first album, but is that the only reason for buying it?

Perry has been pitched as more pin-up than pop talent, but One of the Boys sees an almost defiant album with a style bolder than Britney's, cuter than Kylie's and with an ounce of almost annoyingly trendy American attitude.

All the songs - and especially the title track - focus on entirely innocent girly dilemmas, but Katy's vocal kudos show that she's far more than just a pretty face and more than capable of holding her own in the hotly-contested pop industry.

Stylistically it takes after the overt sexuality of Tatu and Christina Aguilera, but peel away the promiscuity and you're left with an artist who sounds an awful lot like Avril Lavigne. That's no bad thing, but don't be expecting music that's as daring as her videos.

It's unashamedly a teenage girl's kind of album, but a surprisingly accomplished one at that. It gets four stars because it's a good listen and deserving of its success, but given that I'm not a teenage girl I think I'll watch that video on MTV instead.

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Classic FM
Songs Without Words
Genre: Classical
Highlight: The marvellous cover of Coldplay's Yellow

AS KARAOKE albums go, this latest compilation from Classic FM has to rank as one of the least likely candidates.

Snappily-titled Songs Without Words, released earlier this month, is one of those albums you can't help but sing along to.

Sired by the success of BBC series Maestro, classical music has seen a surge in popularity, and this album is the radio station's second attempt to cash in on the style's newest fans.

After the success of Anthems earlier this summer, a Glastonbury-style compilation which plugged some of classical's biggest hitters to fans more used to Morrissey than Mozart, this latest release hands some of pop's finest moments over to the City of Prague Orchestra, takes away the lyrics and gets mixed results.

Wisely, the Czech composers have steered clear of sticking to a single sound, and the final product sees Bowie's brilliant Life on Mars? getting an Elgar-esque edge, U2's With or Without You going all Mozart, and - best of all - Coldplay classic Yellow sounding an awful lot like Vaughan Williams wonder The Lark Ascending.

If you're looking for improvements on the originals you won't find them here, but as an effort to get classical music out to pop-picking youngsters Classic FM's efforts have got be applauded.

Ultimately it's a thoughtful way of blending two very different worlds and a strangely addictive one to sing along to, but I'd still rather buy Anthems as an introduction to classical and leave the rock to Bowie and Bono.

CD provided by Tesco, Llandudno Junction.