Short Cuts! New Releases 11/01/10

*** Brief run-down of this week’s new releases, including track recommendations from THE POPSCENER***

Vampire Weekend – Contra

It’s hardly gone unnoticed that these self proclaimed “Upper West Side Sowetos” are Paul Simon fans – that original vinyl copy of Graceland must now have worn to the flat – but frankly I’m bored of hearing it, and quite why the critics continue to treat the slightest hint of cod-reggae with a pious fanfare befitting of the second coming is beyond me. Nonetheless, irritating dance voice on ‘California English’ aside, this IS simply Vampire Weekend mark II, albeit slightly more subdued. Unsurprisingly, the afrobeat rhythms (‘Run’, amongst others) and white-boy calypso (‘White Sky’) fall flatter second time round. Flatter doesn’t necessarily mean failure, and there’s still enough sublime melody (‘Horchata’, ‘Giving Up the Gun’) here to keep me interested, but Vampires be warned: the critical bonhomie won’t last a third outing of this ilk. 

Choice Cuts: ‘Horchata’, ‘White Sky’, ‘Giving Up the Gun’

6.5/10

Adam Green – Minor Love

The former Mouldy Peach returns with another collection of weirdy Americana-tinged indie which remains more Beck than the Eels (less melody, more scratchiness), but is less arch and more bored than his flaxen-haired contemporary. And so, the blocked-nose delivery provides a certain sardonic romance to two-minute vignettes such as ‘You Blacken My Stay’. Meanwhile, Minor Love is still pleasingly committed anti-folk in terms of lyrical miserablism  (“she punched me in the face like a goblin” is a personal favourite), and tracks such as the spitting lo-fi junk of ‘Oh Shucks’ also show a willingness to change the sonic scenery – and avoid falling asleep at the musical wheel.

Choice Cuts: ‘Goblin’, ‘Buddy Bradley’, ‘You Blacken My Stay’

7.5/10

OK Go - Of the Blue Colour of the Sky

Clearly realising they can’t dine out on “you-tube sensation” (shudder) ‘Here It Goes Again’ forever, and perhaps keen to show they’re not just treadmill-worryers in Weezer-wear, Ok Go finally return with their first record since 2005. After the first half hour you’ll wish they had stayed away, but just when I thought this was going to be a fuzz-bassed, poorly worded, sub-Prince floater, the band almost redeem themselves with a run of good songs late in the day. The off-kilter, cross-eyed pop of ‘Before the Earth Was Round’ is so well crafted I’ll forgive the irksome Kraftwerk vocals, dainty acoustic ballad ‘Last Leaf’ is sweetly realised, and the meditative swoon of ‘While You Were Asleep’ gains them half a point, given the week, for sounding like Vampire Weekend with Africa subtracted. Naturally, closer ‘In the Glass’ is crap, but you can’t have it all. Keep an eye out for a snappy video or two.  

Choice Cuts: ‘Before the Earth Was Round’, ‘While You Were Asleep’

5.5/10

Short Cuts! New Releases 14/12/09

*** Brief run-down of this week’s new releases, including track recommendations from THE POPSCENER***

Former Ghosts – Fleurs

One could – and some certainly will – attempt to provide a grandiloquent celebration of this collection of ambient, murky, and occasionally noisy electronica. However, reduced to its constituent parts, this is the Postal Service’s whirs, clicks and dance-claps with Ian Curtis vocals and a similarly miserable post-punk outlook. Luckily for Former Ghosts, it mostly works, only becoming tiresome when the female vocalist is allowed to wail along too prominently in the foreground.  Free advice for Former Ghosts: don’t let her next time.

Choice Cuts: ‘Mother’, ‘Hold On’

7/10

Alicia Keys – The Element of Freedom

Where Keys’ last offering, As I Am, tentatively opened doors between her piano based balladry and a genuine pop career, this one goes one further: it moves beyond the average domain of R’n’B infused pop to create something smart and inventive. The growling synths that lurk in the background of songs like the splendid ‘Wait Till You See My Smile’ rather suit Keys slightly breathy vocals, the limitations of which mercifully prevent the seemingly de rigueur tonsil hysterics of her contemporaries. Bravo! Next task: fix the rhyming-dictionary lyrical nadirs (“Night/Right/Right/Fight/Night” from ‘This Bed’ – ouch).

Choice Cuts: ‘Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart’, ‘Wait Till You See My Smile’

7.5/10

Animal Collective – Fall Be Kind

Although armed with the same schizophrenic rhythms and scatterbrained sounds, Fall Be Kind sounds ever so slightly warmer to me than this year’s full lengther. Unfortunately, for all the kudos, I still really couldn’t care less for the band’s laboriously cluttered prog take on indie-electronica. Thanks to the hype I specifically gave this one extra spins, but it turns out I was right all along: this IS overrated pap with occasional flashes of worth – principally ‘On a Highway’, which sounds just enough like Sonic Youth for the iPod generation to appease me into giving it a bonus point.

Choice Cuts: ‘On a Highway’, ‘Graze’

6/10