Loyle Carner - "Hugo" (2022)

Loyle's first two albums solidified him as the go-to 'chill guy' of current UK hip hop. The loose, jazzy samples and low-key, laidback delivery made them perfect records to thrown on late at night to unwind to. However, by the end of 2019's Not Waving, But Drowning the vibe had felt like it had run it's course and it was time for Loyle to try something a bit different. Which, thankfully, on Hugo he does. The tempo has picked up, alongside the intensity of the instrumentals and Loyle's delivery; with an increased focus on wider socio-political issues where those themes were used as more set dressing for Loyle's introspection before. It's not a drastic switch into hardcore hip hop or anything, but you can certainly see the influence of Kendrick and Kanye's more dramatic presentation with soul and gospel samples - or even Little Simz's Sometimes I Might Be Introvert from last year which has blown her up into one of the biggest UK rappers currently.

Hate kicks off the record with an eerie synth sample and a crashing hi-hat rhythm, to which Loyle drills into the things he 'hates', which is more a drilling into his own insecurities and thought patterns than just a rant. The lyricism and wordplay on the track is some of his best so far, and while it doesn't fully pop off on first listen, it really is a grower. This leads straight into Nobody Knows (Ladas Road), a groovier cut with its jazzy piano and gospel backing vocals, but equally powerful as Loyle digs deep into his mixed race heritage and absent father. This is a topic he has dabbled in before, but never in such an upfront and honest way.  The rest of the first half follows in the path the first two tracks set out. Georgetown is built around a wonky bass sample and whining synths and Loyle loosely raps over it. It's the closest Hugo comes to the outright bops from the first two records and has a certain coolness to it. Speed Of Plight has a darker instrumental and Loyle's delivery matches the town with a more direct and less swaggering tone.

From Homerton onwards, the album slows down and becomes more familiar to Loyles previous work. Homerton is still very lush and full with a swooning trumpet and soulful backing vocals from Olivia Dean and JNR WILLIAMS, but after this the moodiness creeps up massively. The following track, Blood On My Nikes, is probably the darkest (and also my favourite of the album). It has a tense and sinister beat, and Loyle delves into his experience of gang violence and the desensitisation of violence through videogames. Plastic is incredibly jazzy and smooth, I really like the instrumental on the track. However, the lyrical hook on the track is that Loyle is calling out disingenuous people (and also himself) by referring to them and their possessions / attributes as plastic, and I really feel it runs dry and becomes a little gimmicky by the end of the song. The last three songs really slow the album down and really revert back to the sentimentality of the older records. However, as they only appear at the end they don't have time to outstay their welcome; and do work as a way to wind the album down at it's finish. My favourite of the three is definitely A lasting Place. Similarly, Loyle's love for spoken word and audio bite interludes is still present on Hugo; however I feel they are much more relevant and less intrusive than they were on Not Waving, But Drowning.

On the whole, Hugo is Loyle's tightest and most consistent release so far; and it really feels like he has grown in confidence to make some more outward political statements in his music, rather than just looking inward. However, due to the more serious tone of the album, it lacks any of the fun, laidback bops that are the main draw for me when I come back to revisit his records. While I don't think they would have worked as well in this context, it does hold this album back from being vastly better than his last two. It's still really solid though, and it's nice to see Loyle branch into new musical avenues.

Top Tracks: Hate, Nobody Knows (Ladas Road), Georgetown, Homerton, Blood On My Nikes, A lasting Place

7/10

Arctic Monkeys - "The Car" (2022)

Arctic Monkey's last album, 2018's Tranquillity Base Hotel + Casino, proved to be quite divisive - discarding AM's pop rock riffs and coked up bravado that blew them up into global superstars in favour of a tongue-in-cheek 70's-esque lounge pop sound and Alex Turner rambling about about a hotel on the moon. I, for one, loved it. AM's swaggering cockiness always felt a little one note to me, and the shift to taking themselves a little less seriously (once again) made for a much more interesting listen. It also helps that the songs are actually really well written and there is a fair amount to dig into with the themes and subtext of the record beyond Alex pretending to be some washed up rockstar singing in a lobby of a fictional moon resort. The Car, on the surface, appears to be following in TBH+C's footsteps, forgoing any semblance to indie rock for a 70's inspired baroque pop and soul record. But when digging a little deeper, it feels a lot closer to AM than TBH+C, and not in a good way.

What I mean by that is that it feels much more earnest and self-serious, and somewhat of a pastiche (or even a novelty) of the genres it's mimicking. AM borrowed from 70's hard rock riffs and matched them with Alex's fairly generic 'rockstar' posturing - 'sex, drugs and rock'n'roll' and the like. The Car does the same thing, but replaces these elements with layers of lavish strings and pastiche funk guitar likes, and Alex's formless, lounge-y vocals sprawling over these tracks with little regard for metre or consistency. He did this a bit on TBH+C, but it was much more restrained there, and also fitted with the character he was playing on that album. However, when this album is clearly trying to be taken a lot more earnestly, it just comes of as a kind of bad vocal performance. In places, it feels like he is trying (and failing) to do his best Bowie impression, which made me associate the album with a phrase Bowie said to describe his foray into soul and funk - "plastic soul". Bowie used it as a reference to how he originally wasn't part of the soul scene and he was a plastic imitation of it (I disagree - and I'll get back to the Bowie reviews I promise); but that descriptor seems apt for The Car. While as lavish and ornate as it sounds, it just feels plastic-y and uncanny.

The record opens with by far its best track, the lead single There'd Better Be A Mirrorball. It's the only song I wholeheartedly love on the album and I think best represents what the band is going for on here. It is a heartfelt and sentimental break up ballad set to swooning and cinematic strings and a warbling synth line. The lyrics are some of the sweetest and most grounded Alex has ever written, and the track builds such an atmosphere to accompany them. It certainly feels like it could accompany a movie scene of someone walking back to their car in the rain post-breakup. This atmosphere is unfortunately killed right away by the following track (and first one they teased live) I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am and its tacky 'wah-wah' funk lead guitar part. The song just feels like such a hodgepodge of ideas that never really connect together. The lyrics are disconnected and all over the place, supposedly reflecting a disconnect Alex feels between himself and the environments he finds himself in, but there's too many obtuse references and metaphors masking any sort of depth in the lyrics. I do quite like the string instrumentation that comes in for the chorus, but the cheesy funk guitar comes straight back in for the second verse and takes me straight out of the song. The song feels like a half formed b-side, not one of the big singles from the record.

Sculptures Of Anything Goes has drawn comparisons to AM, which I can certainly see as the mix is mainly comprised of Alex's vocals set against a super-heavy Moog synth bass part - similarly to AM's bass heavy mixes. Once again there are parts of the song I do like; the focus on the synth bass gives the track a lot of tension, and the contrast between it and the strings in the back half of the song is some of the most dynamic use of the orchestra on the album. However, similarly to I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am, the themes of the song are buried in obtuse references that take away from the emotional resonance; and Alex's performance frankly doesn't do it any favours - he just sounds so underwhelming when set against the drama of music. Jet Skis On A Moat is perhaps my least favourite on the record, with Alex cringily crooning over returning 'wah-wah' guitars. The whole thing feels like the edgeless smooth.fm soul designed to appeal to the type of boomer that can't stand any passion or fire in their music. It really rubs me the wrong way. This leads into the big centrepiece of the record, Body Paint. The track does have its moments, but much like many of the moments on the first half, aimlessly meanders through its disparate sections not really building to a greater whole. It also may be Alex's weakest performance on the record, where the inflections are the most egregious and his voice in general coming across strained and raspy.

The second half of the record is more consistent, sonically and quality wise. The album settles into a more run of the mill vintage baroque pop sound, and Alex's delivery becomes more restrained and professional. However, I will say while there's not much I outright dislike about these songs, they also don't have that much unique going for them to make them stand out. They don't even sound particularly 'Arctic Monkeys' - they're just missing a bit of the snark and tonge-in-cheek fun. There are a couple of songs on the back half that I do enjoy, being the title track and Hello You. The Car is nostalgic look back at childhood memories related to the family vehicle, and features some lush jangly acoustic guitar and melancholic piano. The track feels quite tense, and is so close to being really good - I just wish it had more of a fully formed chorus or climax to pay off that tension. Hello You is apparently the only track that survived the band's first attempt in the studio back in 2019, and certainly feels the closest to TBH+C with it's oddball stream of consciences lyrics and more playful, quirky energy. The song is one of the most dynamic on the record, with a catchy chorus and a somewhat bouncy interplay between the lead guitar and string parts on the song.

It's a shame that following Hello You, the album limps out with two of its least notable and most underwhelming tunes. Mr Schwartz is a fine, bog standard bossa nova cut, and the closer Perfect Sense feels like it's attempting to be some semblance of a big cinematic closer, but then chickens out before it ever gets there, and then the album just kind of ends. My first listen to the record was while doing some jobs and I wasn't looking at the tracklist and I genuinely thought "Oh is it over?.." when the track finished.

The Car isn't an awful album, and it's not like I don't think it's a sound that the band can't do. I loved TBH+C and Alex's two albums with The Last Shadow Puppets that play in a lot of similar soundscapes. It's just I feel that these are easily the weakest crop of songs the band has come out with so far, and some poor aesthetical choices particularly in the first half make it a kind of drab and tiresome listen. As much as I personally have problems with AM, at least that album succeeds in having a load of fun catchy hooks to draw you in, so I can safely say that this is my least favourite record from the band thus far. (I'd still take it over the boring, commercial, 'safe for Radio 2' garbage that a lot of the bands from this generation are making nowadays).

Top Tracks: There'd Better Be A Mirrorball, The Car, Hello You

5/10

Muse - "Will Of The People" (2022)

Muse were one of my favourite artists in my early teenage years, and will forever have a soft spot in my heart, despite how underwhelming and somewhat cringy their 2010's output is. After taking a longer than usual break following 2018's bland and trend chasing Simulation Theory (in which they released a collectors edition of the first two albums complete with rarities from that era and an ambitious full anniversary remaster of Origin Of Symmetry), they had some renewed interest from me as the band were talking about returning to some of their older styles and how this new record would be 'a greatest hits of new songs'. In some ways Will Of The People feels like that, although these songs pale in comparison to the Muse greats they're trying to emulate, and the approach to the writing and stylistic choices paints the band into an awkward corner that no amount of "Muse isn't supposed to be taken seriously" can get them out of.

Simulation Theory saw the band appearing to take themselves less seriously after the pretty self-righteous anti-war Drones, but was paired with incredibly predictable and tired 2010's pop rock and synthwave revival tropes that made the album really forgettable in my opinion. Will Of The People, on the other hand, amps up the pomposity (and honestly tackiness) of the band's glam rock and hard rock leanings, which when matched with their weakest written lyrics to date, make it certainly more entertaining on an ironic level than the bands 2010's output. But when actually switching your brain on and looking at the framing of the lyrics and themes (in the music and the interviews surrounding it), it's pretty obvious the band were aiming this to be one of their most grounded albums. This in itself isn't necessarily a problem but becomes one when looking at the connotations that the writing has, and no amount of irony can deflect from it.

Take the opening cut, the title track, for example. The song is this really gaudy and tacky glam rock rehash with cock-rock guitars and ridiculous choral chanted backing vocals. When I first heard it, I did kind of like it on an ironic level, it was so ridiculous that it was entertaining. But the song is apparently very similar to Marylin Manson's Beautiful People (I say apparently because I have never heard this song as I didn't like MM even before he has been revealed to be an sexual, emotional and physical abuser and I'm certainly not giving him a pittance of my money now to verify it). It's questionable that any artist would want to crib so heavily from someone with so many corroborating allegations against them, but a band with such raw technical talent on a song that is literally about fighting oppression is in such bad taste that no amount of irony can save it.

The following track, Compliance, is the same combination of beige synth pop and generic, 'anti-oppression' lyrics that filled Simulation Theory. After this is Liberation, which is the most blatant Queen rip off the band has ever sounded, and is also about (you guessed it) fighting some non-specific oppressor. The next song, Won't Stand Down, is the lead single and was teased by Matt Bellamy to be a return to the heavy, metal influenced side of the band that they haven't shown since the early 2000s. And it does indeed have a heavy alt-metal riff during the post-chorus, but it also has some of the tackiest lyrics on the album and absolutely horrendous Imagine Dragons style plinky plonky synths and booming, obnoxious synth bass hits during the verses. Kill Or Be Killed is a much better 'heavy' song and generally one of the better tracks on the album, generally sticking to a more standard alt-metal style and featuring lyrics that aren't so obviously crap. However, as much as it compares well to the rest of the album it pales in comparison to the likes of Stockholm Syndrome and Reapers from the band's back catalogue. The track doesn't really have any interesting progression to it, it feels like just five minutes of various disconnected riffs bolted on to each other.

While most of these songs are just kind of tacky and bad, the truly tastelessness of the record rears its head again in Ghosts (How Can I Move On). The song is a somewhat insipid piano ballad about the loss of a partner during the pandemic. It is important to note that this isn't a personal song (as Bellamy did not lose his partner during the pandemic), and it clearly shows. The lyrics are utter trite, and read like a GCSE creative writing piece about grief. It's just filled with banal platitudes like "How can I move on?" etc with no real identity or anything. What really irks me about the song is that 'The Great Reset' is mentioned in the chorus. Bellamy is putting dumb political / conspiracy theorist jargon in a song that is supposed to be so incredibly personal and heartfelt. It shows that the band's supposed attempt to be more grounded in real world topics on the album is nothing more than an aesthetic to lace their usual vague "Us verses Them" lyricism. And when so much trauma has been caused by the topics they reference on the album, it really does leave a bad taste in the mouth. So many people have been in the position that this song is supposed to be reflecting, and I guarantee you not one of them is thinking about 'The Great Reset' when grieving a loved one.

Similarly, Verona is a song about forbidden love, with lyrics quite obviously alluding to viruses and masks and social distancing. Yeah the song reads like an anti-mask song. However its clear that the Bellamy isn't trying to deny the existence of the virus, the song acknowledges "the contagion on our lips". In fact the love interest dies at the end of the song, so Bellamy isn't trying to sell it as some government conspiracy. So maybe it's supposed to be ironic, taking the piss out of anti-maskers? But Bellamy's falsetto crooning set against chiming guitars and slow, arpeggiated synth lines implies the song is supposed to be taken wholly seriously. This once again leads to the only conclusion being that the band are only using this current political discourse as an aesthetic to lace over a SparkNotes retelling of Romeo and Juliette. Which again is pretty tasteless considering the amount of people who have been killed by Covid. The closer, We Are Fucking Fucked, reinforces this idea. The song pointlessly lists of references to global events over the past few years (wildfires, world wars, viruses etc) with absolutely no commentary beyond Bellamy's comical bellowing "We are fucking fucked". It's nihilism with no point, that teenage angst where you think your cleverer than the world around you just because you've noticed how shit everything is and you think nobody has ever realised that before you. Yes Matt, we are 'fucking fucked', and?... The song also rehashes a half formed version of the Knights Of Cydonia riff, to show how bereft of ideas it is both lyrically and musically.

The only song here that is remotely enjoyable is You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween. The track is as gaudy and over the top as the rest of the album, however it's the only one that it's clearly not meant to be taken seriously. The cheesy, funky synth bass and spiralling electric organ are just a lot of fun. It's clearly meant to be a dumb, silly Halloween song and that's what it is. However it feels so odd plonked in the middle of an album that is as equally as ridiculous as it, but completely unintentionally. Here are a load of really bad, tacky, cheesy (and sometimes tasteless) songs that are supposed to be some kind of political commentary, and then a cheesy, novelty Halloween song.

Its hard for me to say which of the past two Muse albums is worse. Simulation Theory was badly written, musically dated on arrival and just plain boring; whereas WOTP is tacky, tasteless and somewhat problematic - although it's certainly going to stick in my memory much longer than ST ever did.

Top Tracks: You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween

3/10

Sam Fender - "Seventeen Going Under" (2021)

Earlier this year I went to see Sam Fender's Finsbury Park concert with some friends, and I had promised I would talk about this album, so I am finally getting round to doing it. I have to admit I wasn't initially onboard with Sam when he first broke through in 2019 with a couple of indie-lite, pop rock tunes being Will We Talk and Hyper Sonic Missiles. The bland chipper 'will you go home with me' lyrics and The Strokes reminiscent riff of the former felt very 'just-indie-enough' for daytime Radio 1, and the banal political commentary of the latter felt so tame and obvious. I decided I didn't need to check out his debut album, which was a shame as there is some pretty good tunes on it. My interest only really developed after the release of the lead single and title track of this record, his second. The song is very much a grower, being an earnest Springsteen-esque heartland rock epic about the trials and tribulations of growing up in a dead-end backwater UK town (in Sam's case it's his hometown of North Shields but it could apply to anywhere). The song is paced brilliantly, as each line of each verse builds the tension further, but there isn't actually a chorus to release that tension. Therefore you are left on a knife edge until the very end of the song where Sam howls "I'm seventeen going under" amidst swelling sax and roaring guitars. The song is so well written that you might not even notice this, as every line of the song is catchy and relatable enough to be the hook.

It opens up the record perfectly and the first half of the tracklist very much follows in its footsteps - albeit with more conventional song structures. Sam paints himself as an earnest everyman, not shying away from his darker side and his own troubles, but also not indulgently self-deprecating for the sake of edginess. The tracks a built off driving rhythm sections and roaring guitars, akin to Springsteen or U2, feature cathartic sing-along choruses, and build to their climaxes with soaring strings and swooning sax. The particular highlights are Getting Started and Get You Down. The joyous and resolute chord sequence and catchy as all hell chorus of Getting Started is like a shot of serotonin straight to the brain, whereas Get You Down's thoughtful lyrics reflecting on the impact Sam's past mistakes have had on a loved one are equally as gripping.

It's only at the midpoint where the record begins to slow down, with the back-to-back Spit Of You and Last To Make It Home. Spit Of You is a slower cut, replacing the roaring guitars for a jangly acoustic while Sam lays bare his troubled and difficult relationship he has with his father, and his yearning for are more honest and emotional connection with him. It's a heartfelt and relatable cut that really brings the album back down to Earth after the anthemia of the first half. Last To Make It Home slows it down even further, being a piano ballad about feeling lost in life, being the last to leave the bar at close and trying to seek validation and connection through social media. Sam sings it with such earnestness that it feels quite moving, although at over five minutes with only two verses and a long drawn out chorus it can drag a little.

Not all the songs here are introspective and personal tales, as like on his debut there are a couple of political tunes on here as well. And similarly to Hypersonic Missiles they don't really hit the mark. Aye is a wordy and driving rant on the untouchable powers that be behind the curtain of our elected political leaders, but in some ways it's too wordy for its own good - as in the first verse it stretches all the way from Boudica to Jeffery Epstein. I get the point of what Sam is saying here (being that these powers have always been in place) but it makes the song lack focus and it just descends into political disenfranchisement and nihilism, but it doesn't have any rallying hook or message to get behind to counter it. Another gripe I have with the song is that the driving guitars build and build tension, and when you think all that tension is going to explode into a pit worthy guitar solo or breakdown the track just kind of ends out the blue. Similarly Long Way Off's message of 'I think I'm on the right side but were still a long way off where we need to be' is again so banal and vague. Looking into the track, it's about the progressive abandonment of certain UK working class communities by Labour in the 2010's, which is a meaty topic, but Sam doesn't delve into it with any real depth, instead opting for the 'we need to think less rigidly and black and white' platitude.

The back half of the record very much follows on from the aesthetics of the first half, and so there aren't all that many surprises on it. There's a slow-burning ballad in the form of Mantra, and another driving anthemic cut being Paradigms. This song is definitely the most forgettable on the record, with the driving guitars, Sam's earnest delivery and climax of strings and sax pretty played out by this point on the record and I feel the bonus track Better Of Me should've made the cut instead (as it is easily the best of the bonus tracks and a real change of pace with its stripped back approach and warbling synth lines). The Leveller is a highlight of the second half with its pummelling drums and more immediate punky energy; as is the closer The Dying Light. It is another heart wrenching piano ballad in ode to the friends that he's lost to suicide, alongside the men he sees drinking their sorrows away in his hometown, as well as his own fears about the future and bringing children into the world where these cycles of generational trauma never seem to be broken. The track slowly brings itself out of this depression as Sam decides to not give in to the hopelessness the sake of his family and friends - both the ones he has lost and the ones that are still there with him.

Seventeen Going Under is a good, sometimes great album, that is a real step up from his debut. He's at his best when he's telling personal tails of relatable struggles, which is thankfully the majority of this record. I am a little concerned, however, of where Sam can go from here as the title track is by far the best track he has ever written and I'm not sure he can top it. Similarly, his style and aesthetic begins to wear out it's welcome by the end of the record (the bonus tracks, bar Better Of Me, are pretty unremarkable and I'm glad they weren't included on the main album), so only time will tell if he has enough good songs of this style in him to fill out a third record with the same quality.

Top Tracks: Seventeen Going Under, Getting Started, Get You Down, Spit Of You, The Leveller, The Dying Light

7/10

black midi - "Hellfire" (2022)

Following straight on from last years Cavalcade, black midi are back with their 3rd record, Hellfire. The band claimed that 'if Cavalcade was a drama, Hellfire is an action movie', and that certainly is the case with all of the elements that made up that record returning but with supercharged intensity and ferocity. The complicated, technical grooves that build the base of their sound are here, alongside the fusions of classical and jazz instrumentation that Cavalcade brought along - but is all brought forward in a much more immediate and forceful way. The record is two tracks longer than Cavalcade yet is nearly four minutes shorter, so it doesn't have time to ebb and flow in the same way as that album. It's a breakneck rollercoaster to the finish. 

The most obvious change to create this sense of immediacy is the approach to lyrics and themes. This is the first time a bm record has presented its ideas so blatantly, with the stories these tracks tell actually intelligible - as opposed to the obtuse doom propheteering of Cavalcade and the general psychotic ramblings of Schlagenheim. The titular intro track spells out all that Hellfire is, being the grim reality of mortality and death, the graphic brutality of war and the ideas of sin and damnation that try to make sense of all the madness. 

The more upfront lyrics of the album combined with the sprint to the finish pace make it probably the most accessible bm record of the three, with the tracks on the first half of the record just rolling into each other with no room to let up. Following on from the intro track, Sugar/Tzu opens with a theatrical sporting announcement before exploding straight into pummelling arpeggios and bombastic horns - reinforcing the themes of the trivialisation of war through viewing it as some kind of game where personal glory can be gained. The end of the song crashes straight into Eat Men Eat, a less brutal but just as tense track sung by bassist Cam Picton. The sinister flamenco groove of the song perfectly matches the creepy and graphic tale of mutiny and food poisoning as a mine captain tries to poison his workers to produce stomach acid to be the secret ingredient in has wine production. It's graphic and weird and reminds me of those slightly traumatising kids stories you'd see on CBBC in the 2000's (obscure reference, I know).

This then bombards straight into Welcome To Hell, the lead single and anchor for the albums themes. Geordie Greep plays the role of a WW1 recruitment / training officer, luring in the character of Tristan Bongo to sign up with tales of glory and adventure, before revealing his true intentions about using him purely as a tool to kill others in the 'game of war' and descending into abuse and eventually discharging him for not withstanding the trauma and developing PTSD. Musically it is perhaps the most refined of the bm cacophonous walls of sound / pummel your face off type tracks which matches the vocal delivery from Greep perfectly. Still is the first time the album lets up, and after the intensity of instrumentation and lyrics of the first four tracks it is a necessary breather. Lyrically it is the most lightweight on the record, being a mere breakup song - as opposed to the traumatising horrors of humanity thus far. It has a country twang to it and there's a particular part towards the end where it progresses into a kind of barn dance breakdown that I really like and wish lasted longer than a couple pf bars. As much as I like Still, it does feel at odds with what comes before and after it in the record. Where every other song is about the traumatic depths of humanity, Still is just a kind of sad but generally calm and unemotional breakup tune.

Half Time brings back the sporting themes from Sugar/Tzu and signals the transition to the back half of the record, which unfortunately doesn't grip me like the first half. The Race Is About To Begin picks up the story of Tristan Bongo after Welcome To Hell, where he descends into a gambling addiction betting on horses. The song has musical similarities and call backs to that track, which in my opinion means it struggles to set itself apart in its first phase. As the track progressive, Greep's vocals descend into this staccato semi-rapped / semi spoken word delivery reminiscent of a horse racing commentator; and while it does distinguish it from Welcome To Hell, it feels a little gimmicky and the track as a whole goes on way to long. On every listen for me, Dangerous Liaisons and The Defence slide into background, they're just fairly unremarkable compared to the front end of the record and black midi in general. They follow the same themes as the rest of the record, with more of a religious slant dealing in temptation and sin and hypocrisy. Perhaps it's just the sheer bombardment of words and ideas of the record up to this point that I am just desensitised to the themes by this point.

27 Questions Closes out the record and one again brings back some of the lost intensity with thunderous pianos and crashing percussion, sounding like some kind of march towards inevitable death. Which is what the song is about as the protagonist escapes awful weather out in town one night in a free admission show by the character Freddie Frost, a washed up actor making his last play about his life's achievements as he is on deaths door. The whole first half feels sinister and foreboding as the play tries to dress up Freddie Frost as a grand and accomplished figure, before the second half completely unravels it. It's sung from the perspective of Freddie, and becomes the play he has written, which he finishes off by listing off his 27 questions about 'life the universe and everything', completely demolishing the fake grandeur of the performance, declaring it pointless and farcical in the face of death, becoming completely self-deprecating before he drops dead on stage before he could even finish his 27 questions. I am really mixed on the track, as I get what it's trying to do, and I really love the musicality of the first half. But the flip to Freddie's perspective both musically pushes the theatricality of the album just a little over the edge into a territory I can't really take seriously, and also feels like the record descends into that kind of sixth form 'nihilism = clever' territory.

I guess that's my biggest problem with the record when compared to Cavalcade. As the lyrics and themes are more prominent this time around, its more easy to see that when you strip back the technical musicianship and wordy, meaty lyrics, its just plain nihilism. And while there's a place for it in music, dressing it up as something more profound than it actually is does rub me the wrong way a little. It gives off that 'look I'm more clever than you' vibe. Cavalcade was more patient, and more mysterious and wonderous, and more consistent. That being said, I very much enjoy the first few tracks here, musically and lyrically; and on the whole I'd take it over the somewhat shock value allure of Schlagenheim.

7/10

Top Tracks: Hellfire, Sugar/Tzu, Eat Men Eat, Welcome To Hell, Still

Paolo Nutini - "Last Night In The Bittersweet" (2022)

Paolo Nutini is a favourite of mine from my adolescent years, with his work cumulating in the dramatic and grandiose Caustic Love in 2014. That record is still one that I spin regularly, having a timeless energy to it, eschewing the acoustic pop and folk of his first two records for a fuller and more rich combination of blue-eyed soul and bluesy indie rock. After touring for the album finished, Nutini largely dropped off the map for the following eight years, re-emerging with this, his fourth record. The album very much follows on from Caustic Love, incorporating a large full band sound with dramatic and detailed production. The influences at play in that album have further coalesced into a sound reminiscent of 70s soft rock - think Rumours era Fleetwood Mac. What results is a long and quite patient album that goes at its own pace. There are some of the more 'rocking' moments on here, but its quite clear that Paolo is more interested in being an earnest songwriter than a captivating showman on here.

All is evident from the 4 minute intro track, Afterneath, a slow build up of rumbling guitars and bass with Paolo's distant wails in the background. It's not the catchy and punchy single that his album's have previously opened up with. It then leads into Radio, a very relaxed and soulful soft rock tune where Paolo laments the disingenuousness of pop music and that "he wants love" and something he can truly relate to. I really like the song, but its one that quietly wraps around you and is content that it doesn't actually have to try all that hard. Again it's a song for Paolo himself, not the radios it is titled after. Following this is two of the singles, both very earnest singer/songwriter tracks, both equally beautiful and soothing. The first of these is Through The Echoes, where Nutini details a connection he has with someone that transcends their differences. Similarly, Acid Eyes yearns for the past and regrets mistakes made and feels like Paolo coming to terms with these regrets. It's sweet and honest and great. 

The next track is then a spoken word interlude, which means that Lose It, the sixth track and 20 minutes into the record is the first time it really breaks lose into a more up-tempo and momentum driven mode. Lose It is akin to some of the longer more blues rock influenced songs on Caustic Love, with its driving fuzzed out guitars and Paolo sounding gruffer and more gritty. The song is about letting go and just enjoying yourself - its great to just sing along to and forget the world. It builds and builds, introducing backing soul vocals and extra guitars and keyboards as it progresses to the climax. The other linear barnburner on the album, comes much later in the tracklist, being Shine A light, a song that sounds more influenced by heartland rock than the blues of Lose It. Equally great, it reaches outwards, trying to counter the loneliness and isolation you can feel at times.

In between these two songs, the album then returns to its unpressured meanders into lowkey and earnest songs. Everywhere has a vintage soul flavour to its swaying grove and electric organs, and classic bluesy guitar solo. Abigale is a simple folk tune reminiscent of Paolo's 2nd album, Sunny Side Up. The twangy guitars, bass work and melodies of Children Of The Stars is the most Fleetwood Mac-y the album gets, you can just imagine Christine McVie or Stevie Nicks crooning on it instead of Nutini. Heart Filled up is initially similarly stripped back as Abigale, before layering more electric instruments in. Like Afterneath, it feels like more like a building interlude than a fully fledged song.

After Shine A light is another crop of songs that close out the record. and while they're generally of the same quality as the rest of the record, the sequencing makes them feel kind of unnecessary as by this point the record has hit the length of the majority of pop releases and the song feels very much like it could be a finale to the record. Out of the remaining songs, my favourites are the last two songs, Take Me Take Mine, and Writer. Take Me Take Mine is a soothing soul tune where Paolo bares his heart and proclaims that he will always be there to sooth over all of the insecurities and worries the subject of the song has. The track ebbs and flows with washes of reverby guitar and piano. Writer is a cute little acoustic song that sort of breaks the fourth wall as the closer, as Paolo directly addresses us, the audience, about his role as a songwriter and the relationship between the two.

Perhaps the weakest songs on the record are actually the ones closest to being radio friendly. Petrified In Love and Desperation are jaunty indie tunes that stick out like a soar thumb amongst the passionate soul and bluesy soft rock of the rest of the record, and just feel a bit odd coming from Paolo at this age. They sound like songs written by a twenty-something, not someone in their mid thirties. They could've easily been cut, along with a couple of the other songs here to make the record tighter and more impactful. Give it a re-sequence to help with the pacing and it perhaps would've enjoyed it more than I currently do. However, the quality of the record is still consistent, so the fact that it's a bit long also doesn't impact it too much. Paolo is a great songwriter and these are good songs so I'm glad to have him back after the long hiatus.

 

Top Tracks: Radio, Through The Echoes, Acid Eyes, Lose It, Everywhere, Shine A Light, Take Me Take Mine, Writer

7/10

Wolf Alice - "Blue Lullaby" (2022)

 

I have once again been distracted by my finishing up my degree over the past couple of months, so I thought it would be nice to get back into the swing of things with a quick one. This is Blue Lullaby, an EP of acoustic versions from Wolf Alice's 2021 album Blue Weekend. That album has been in constant rotation for me since it came out and features a massive, cinematic sound with layers upon layers of effects and overdubs, so it makes sense for these songs to gain a different light in a more stripped back setting.

While still technically all acoustic versions, stripped back is sort of a miss-label of the EP, as there is still tons of reverb and choral backing vocals in the mix here. However, the change in instrumentation does really change the vibe of these songs, in most cases offering them up as equally good (and justified) as the original album versions. That's a testament to the songwriting, that they still stand up in a different context. Lipstick on the Glass comes off far more moody and brooding in this context, and the pure heart and earnestness of How Can I Make It OK? still shines through - even though it sounds more reflective than the blast of endorphins provided by the bombastic original.

I think I actually prefer the twangy guitars of Feeling Myself to the album version. It feels a whole lot more personal than the cinematic, sweeping synths and fits the themes of self love way more. The Last Man On Earth, likewise feels closer and more intimate, which certainly works with the introspective lyrics. Its an equally good alternative to the building layers of drama in the original. The only track which doesn't make the transition so brilliantly is No Hard Feelings. The track is already the most stripped back on the album being an acoustic cut, so the guitar is swapped out for a soft keyboard tone. This change in instrument doesn't really change the song up all that much so it ends up having pretty much the same vibe as the original.

Blue Lullaby really shows Wolf Alice's talent by throwing these songs in a different context and they still stand toe to toe with the originals. It's a really great EP, check it out.

Top Tracks: Lipstick on the Glass, How Can I Make It OK?, Feeling Myself, The Last Man On Earth

8/10

Foals - "Life Is Yours" (2022)

Foals' last project, 2019s Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost double album, turned out to be quite a tone-setter for the 2 years that immediately followed. Frontman Yannis Philippakis described the records as 'doom soup' and much of the lyrical content focused the general shit-ness of the world circa 2019 (Brexit, Trump and the climate crisis were obvious themes). So when the pandemic hit and took away nearly all the small moments that keep us going through the existential dread, the band took it as an opportunity to shift gears and write a record celebrating those things that we all desperately missed. Which is a pretty good thing in my opinion, as despite part 1 being my favourite Foals album, part 2 might just be their weakest - being run of the mill anthemic stadium rock that I was honestly too kind on at the time, as I have not felt compelled to come back to it once in the years since.

All is evident from the lead single, Wake Me Up. The track is a straight forward and anthemic dance punk stormer, with funky Talking Heads-y grooves and chanted chorus vocals. The track has such an ecstatic energy to it that I haven't heard from the band since Antidotes. The rest of the singles, while not quite as in your face, have grown on me also - providing a sense of pure fun and energy. 2am is more spacious and blocky, with a catchy and warm guitar melody that matches the lyrics detailing the back end of nights out where you're a bit worse for wear, chatting shit with mates in a kebab shop. Its pure nostalgia and just hits the right vibe. 2001 is sugary synth funk that fits the Glastonbury-montage-core descriptor I gave to one of The Wombats' songs earlier this year (I think it was even used in the BBC coverage), although it feels a whole lot more natural and less forced and calculated. Looking High is probably the weakest of the singles, being just a little too 80's pastiche for me. While decent to good songs, I would say that all of the singles bar Wake Me Up do feel a little safe and radio-ready. They don't really go anywhere unexpected. This is pretty evident in that 2001s extended outro is portioned into the separate interlude track (summer sky).

The rest of the album is a bit of a mixed bag. The opener, Life Is Yours, has elements I like: its summery Balearic-esque instrumentation and its general message of 'life is what you make it'; but it might just be the most compressed song the band has ever released. Every singling element is having a boxing match to get some space, and it genuinely sounds awful on headphones. Foals generally have the tendency to blow out their mixes, but this record is the most obviously mixed to be played out loud on a massive stereo system out of any of them. Flutter is built around a repeated guitar loop that initially feels quite quirky and rhythmic, but the track doesn't progress from this one idea and gets old by the end of its runtime. Under The Radar is the same passable but unremarkable stadium rock that filled ENSWBL part 2, and Crest Of The Wave is the washed out slow burn that every single Foals album tries at least once, and I'd say its on the more forgettable side of the spectrum.

Its on the back end of the record that the band finally jump fully into the alt-dance that the rest of the album teases at. The Sound is spiralling and groovy tune that I do find myself getting sucked into as the layers of synths and guitars build to a massive crescendo. The vocals are buried in the mix which I initially was offput by, but they just fit the vibe of the song so well. The closer, Wild Green, is just a full drop into ambient house and while not anything to write home about in the grand scheme of things, it's nice to see the band try something genuinely new that they've only really hinted at in the past.

Ultimately, Life Is Yours is decent, if a little lightweight. Gone is a lot of the weirdness and wonkiness that carried through from their earliest singles to ENSWBL. Philippakis said that they made the album to be played at parties and barbeques and road trips, a soundtrack to people living life again. And that's what it is in the end, a soundtrack, a vibe, background music. But it does succeed in that - its fun, its breezy, its summery (and Glastonbury-montage-core).

Top Tracks: Wake Me Up, 2am, 2001, The Sound

6/10

Everything Everything - "Raw Data Feel" (2022)

With touring of their last record, 2020's Re-Animator, put on hold due to the pandemic, Everything Everything went straight back into the studio to record a new project. While an enjoyable album for me, that record felt like it wasn't much of a step forward for the band compared to their previous four albums for many (a sentiment I can certainly agree with). So the band made a conscious effort to take a new direction with Raw Data Feel both lyrically and sonically. Re-Animator somewhat shifted lyrically to more human, 'emotional' topics than the band's usual socio-political critiques; however did so in quite broad strokes. Raw Data Feel doubles down in this direction, telling more personal stories around the the theme of human responses to trauma. Furthermore, Jonathon Higgs generated a portion of the lyrics using AI by feeding a bot he named Kevin 4chan threads, LinkedIn T&Cs and the whole of Beowulf.

An interesting idea for sure, however it doesn't quite come together for me. Lyrically, the album feels like a bit of a mess and the AI lyrics don't help. The band are known for their eccentric and sometimes cryptic word barrages, but this is the first time for me they seem like they might not have much meaning behind them beyond just being ridiculous for the sake of it. For example, the hook of Pizza Boy is "I'll have a Coke, I'll have a Pepsi now". It is one of the lyrics revealed to be generated from the AI, and the on the nose commentary on consumerism and choice paralysis is 1) nowhere near as deep as it thinks it is, 2) not all that catchy. I'm not going to sing along to that, it sounds stupid, not quirky and eccentric. There is a running theme of the main character wanting to offload his trauma onto a computer, and Kevin is one of several recurring characters in the record, but it isn't clear whether Kevin is the main character or the robot companion. The same goes for Jennifer and The Goatman, how these characters fit in and relate to each other is thinly sketched and unclear. It's an album that appears to have some kind of linear narrative, but when you try and look for it you can't make head or tale of it. 

Similarly, Higgs' lyrics have always had the tendency to descend into generalisations as he focuses more on the feeling created by something rather than the thing or event itself; but due to the increased intimacy of Raw Data Feel, the use of "it" and "thing" is far more common on here than any of their previous releases and so in places does feel underwritten. That being said, the record works so much better if taken on the broader strokes much like the rest of their work. Teletype and I Want A Love Like This are about trying to bury yourself in someone else to avoid your own demons, Bad Friday is about excessive partying, Shark Week is about narcissism and control as coping mechanisms, HEX delves deep into the pits of internet forums, and Jennifer is about straight up escaping a mentally damaging situation or environment.

On a musical level, the band also make a lot of changes, and as a result the album feels all over the place. The band have done away with the majority of the prog-pop and art rock elements of their sound, delving deeper into their synth pop and electronic tendencies. What results is a much more synthetic and ridged sounding album, but with much more simple poppy song progressions. The band still sound as eccentric as they always did, but it feels way more surface level with booming and blown out synths and drums, jarring dynamic changes and instrumental switch ups; rather than the complex grooves and linear builds of the band's earlier records. 

The sequencing and pacing also seems so weird. The first four tracks are the four singles, and are all glitchy alt dance tunes, but after this point the style is dropped and doesn't return again. The fifth track, Jennifer, is a driving Killer's-esque heartland rock song, however Higg's voice is far less suited for this kind of earnest delivery than the likes of Brandon Flowers. It's a shame because the song itself is one of the strongest written on the record. Leviathan is the standard Radiohead inspired slow burn that each EE album has, although it is five and a half minutes long and doesn't do anything really to justify its length. Every EE album also has one track that is the most over the top, balls to the wall song that the band can possibly come up with about 2/3 of the way through the record. Raw Data Feel has not one, but three; and they all sit one after another slap bang in the middle of the runtime. Shark Week is easily my favourite of the three, with its snappy beat and catchy vocal melodies. Cut Up! and HEX, however veer just slightly over the edge from over the top to obnoxious. Cut Up! has a really tacky instrumental that sounds like a bad imitation of Depeche Mode's Master and Servant and Higg's repetitive staccato vocals get really grating. I like the sinister lyrics and booming, bassy verses of HEX, but the chorus feels underwhelming and I can't help but feel like the band has covered the idea of internet radicalisation enough times at this point and far better in the past (e.g. Zero Pharaoh or Ivory Tower).

The record is just a little too long and bloated, and the odd blocking of similar tracks together make it feel disjointed. Metroland Is Burning and My Computer just feel unnecessary. By the time the record limps into it's final leg I struggle to care about the supposed emotional arc songs like Kevin's Car and Born Under A Meteor are supposed to provide to the narrative. The closer does pull me back in to an extent. Titled Software Greatman, it plays more into the existentialism of the idea about offloading your emotions onto a machine and the fact that you can never be truly 'over' something traumatic as it becomes a part of your identity. "I don't know how to get over this thing, 'cause it's always there" Higgs sings and it certainly hits a lot harder than the deliberately deflective lyrics earlier on in the record.

Raw Data Feel is a messy album with a half formed concept. But the fact that it is so overstuffed means with every moment it is trying something new. It's never boring, even if the ideas don't always land. EE are still a band that don't really sound like anyone else. I commend the ambition, and I certainly prefer a miss-fired experiment to something uninspired. If anything, it has given me a greater appreciation for the tight math rock grooves and explosive choruses of group's debut, which is an album that has never truly clicked for me until now.

Top Tracks: I Want A Love Like This, Shark Week, Software Greatman

6/10

The Smile - "A Light For Attracting Attention" (2022)

The Smile is the latest in the long line of Radiohead side projects, consisting of the band's Thom Yorke, Johnny Greenwood alongside drummer Tom Skinner from the jazz band Sons of Kemet. The unveiling of the band and the release of this debut album has been a unique one for the wider Radiohead associated canon, with the band making their debut performance at last years Glastonbury Pilton-party livestream before going quiet for 6 months until the start this year where singles from the record would drop every couple of weeks until the full album released last month. This is in stark contrast to the last few Radiohead albums which would have a pretty quick turn-around between announcement and release, with only one or two singles (or maybe even none) released beforehand. And as each of the six singles released, I found myself thinking with each one, "This sounds just like a Radiohead song, why is it coming from a new side project just to sound like the main band?"

But after hearing the record in full, I think that's kind of the point. Each Radiohead record over the past 25 years has been something new from the last, whereas A Light For Attracting Attention feels like a conglomeration of a lot of the sounds and styles that were new and novel on those records. Besides from not featuring half the members, if this was labelled a Radiohead record, I feel it would be considered a disappointment for not being something wholly new and fresh. Not to say that the album cover any new territory of its own, because it certainly does. The record has a straightforwardness to it, lyrically and in terms of song structure, which brings out a post-punk energy to the thing that most Radiohead albums don't really veer into. However, it still retains its artiness with the record being the most indebted to krautrock and jazz since Amnesiac.

The record opens with the pulsating electronics of The Same, a slowly building linear tune where Thom Yorke proclaims "We all want the same". This is the first introduction to the major theme of the record, blunt political venting. The lyrics on the album are pretty easy to follow, compared to Thom's usual cryptic, word-salad approach to lyrics. This track is immediately followed by The Opposite, a tune built around a jangly, repetitive guitar groove and features lyrics juxtaposing the universalism of the opener, drawing lines in the sand between the people and "the opposite" (i.e. the ruling classes). This leads into the first single and real highlight of the record, the noisy and scrappy You Will Never Work In Television Again which tears down gross men in positions in power - making specific reference to Harvey Weinstein and Berlusconi.

Pana-vision is the first of the jazz infused cuts on the album, building tension through its ascending piano line which doesn't quite resolve. The horn and sting sections on the track sound emasculate and Thom's vocal performance is stunning. The Smoke is an interesting fusion of a simple post-punk guitar loop and jazz instrumentation. While the upper layers of the track sound great, the base loop is a little too repetitive and simple for me, meaning the song only really gets interesting when the jazz elements come in. However they don't progress into much, leaving the song feeling a little flat.

Thin Thing is a hypnotic and raucous krautrock jam that throws tightness to the wind, making the song feel really chaotic as Greenwood's heavily distorted guitar winds round and round and the layers and effects build up in the track. It might be my favourite of the record. It feels like being caught up in a random storm that has appeared out of nowhere and you are entirely disorientated. We Don't Know What Tomorrow Brings has a similar bite to it, although sounding more straightforward and direct. It feels like the little brother to In Rainbows' Bodysnatchers with its crunchy guitars and snarled vocals. A Hairdryer is a twangy and groovy song that has a great moment where the track builds and builds to a climax that doesn't actually come, instead moving into a much more restrained lengthy outro, which I think is quite a creative and subversive bit of song writing.

Two ballads sit at the centre of the record, being Open The Floodgates and Free In the Knowledge. The former features Thom crooning about fame and the expectations of live shows, where fans only want to see the singles and not the slow deep cuts and heart wrenching moments. The song is pretty beautiful with the twinkling electronics and piano chords. Free In The Knowledge is a more traditional acoustic rock ballad about hoping for better days and the concepts of 'the truth will come out' and free speech. Its perfectly serviceable, however doesn't quite do it for me. It just feels a little impersonal for a slow acoustic ballad. There is also a moment on the song which Thom sounds like Chris Martin, which exemplifies the sort of nearly-radio 2 listener appropriate the song comes across.

The record closes with Skrting On the Surface, which brings back the jazz elements from earlier on in the record and has existed as a half finished Radiohead song for years (occasionally being played at live shows). Much like The Smoke, the jazz instrumentation lifts this song up considerably, with the base song kind of feeling like it never ended up on a project before now for a reason. Its just okay, not awful but not remarkable either. The swells of saxophone also feel sort of bolted onto the track to give it some weight and intensity to end the album on and don't really gel all that well with the core song here.

ALFAA is a good album, Thom and Johnny are insanely talented songwriters and there are some great moments on here. However it does feel a little unremarkable considering it sounds so similar to a main Radiohead album and doesn't do that much that we haven't already heard from them. There's no serious dips in quality here or weird diversions into completely different styles, so as an album in itself it flows really well and is easy to listen to. It's basically more Radiohead if you like Radiohead.

Top Tracks: You Will Never Work In Television Again, Pana-vision, Thin Thing, Open The Floodgates, A Hairdryer, We Don't Know What Tomorrow Brings

7/10

Fontaines D.C. - "Skinty Fia" (2022)

Fontaines D.C. have come back quickly with their third album, and following the singles released beforehand I have been very exited for it. The band has delved further into the gothic rock sounds of A Hero's Death, creating a record even darker and gloomier than that one. The tone and atmosphere is also more grimier and grittier than the last album's dejectedness, there's a bit more angst and bite showing through. This is exemplified by the lead single, Jackie Down The Line. The song sounds like a gnarled, bastardised version of Bigmouth Strikes Again with its jangly riff and lyrics characterising the self-sabotaging and self-doubting side of ourselves that we all have as this omnipresent and sinister character of Jackie.

This sinister underbelly is carried through the next couple of singles, I Love You and the title track. I Love You initially calls back to The Cure's Lovesong in both its memorable guitar line and lyrics about complete devotion to someone (or something). While initially appearing as a more standard love song, the track is about the band's love for their home country, Ireland, despite acknowledging all of its faults. These themes rear their head in the second half where the track flips on its head and frontman Grian Chatten doesn't shy away from any topic, from the country's economic struggles, to high male suicide rate, to the influence and atrocities of the Catholic Church. It is such an effective communication of the duality of national pride and national shame. Skinty Fia also has strong connection to Irish heritage. The name translates to 'The damnation of the deer' in English, and is an old Irish saying referencing the prehistoric Irish elk, who's extinction is traditionally attributed to it's oversized antlers becoming a hindrance rather than benefit - once again fitting in with the themes of misplaced national pride, and the preference of cultural tradition over social progress. The track is accompanied by this semi-industrial, trip hoppy beat that is a real change of pace for the band (who thus far have very much operated within the standard post-punk guitar, bass and drums wheelhouse) and is actually a really good fit for them.

The record opens on a similar note, with the tense and brooding In ár gCroíthe go deo. The title is a Gaelic saying which translates to "in our hearts forever". The phrase was requested by an old Irish lady in England to be on her gravestone, but the church of England refused unless there was an English translation also inscribed. This mix of grief and anger is really effectively conveyed by the meaty and rumbling rhythm guitar and pulsating electronics. It really personifies the feeling of complete injustice and prejudice her family must've been feeling. This rumbling anger is turned into a complete rage for the closer, Nabokov. The track follows the feelings of bitterness and self-deprecation someone can feel when devoted to someone, with the guitars are distorted and roaring and Chatten basically shouting to reflect this.

While a really like everything I have mentioned so far, the record does fall back in a couple of places. Big Shot and How Cold Love Is are pretty run of the mill post-punk that don't really do much unique; although I do enjoy the Interpol-esque interplay between the chiming lead guitar and Chatten's vocals on the latter. It just doesn't quite have the hook to get it over the line and make it something special. Bloomsday and Roman Holiday on the other hand are two really good songs that are a bit marred by their production. Both songs are layered up with loads of layer of reverb and just end up feeling kind of smudgy. This is really disappointing in the case of Roman Holiday because the song at the core of it is perhaps one of the best the band has ever written, and I find myself singing it to myself; but whenever I actually listen to it I can't help but think it would sound much better if it wasn't quite so washed out. The Couple Across The Way is a stripped back ballad featuring only Grian Chatten and an accordion. It's a decent song, although doesn't really get me like the ballads from A Hero's Death (Sunny and No). It also feels kind of jarring in its placement in the record, being straight between the much more heavily produced Roman Holiday and Skinty Fia.

The best of Skinty Fia is the best material Fontaines D.C. have produced so far, and the lyrical content is certainly the meatiest of the three records. However, the slight inconsistencies mean that it hasn't quite reached the level of A Hero's Death in terms of enjoyment over the entire runtime. It's still a really good record though and I'm excited for where the band are going with the more heady and cerebral themes.

Top Tracks: In ár gCroíthe go deo, Jackie Down The Line, Skinty Fia, I Love You, Nabokov,

7/10

Wet Leg - "Wet Leg" (2022)

With the return of all things 2000s over the past couple of years, including pop punk and nu-disco dance pop, it's no surprise that Wet Leg have been hyped up as the harbingers of the return of 2000's indie rock. Breaking through with the internet hit Chaise Longue last year, a cheeky and irreverent post-punk tune with a sense of fun that the genre has seriously been lacking for the past half a decade. (As great as bands like IDLES and Fontaines D.C are, they're hardly what you'd call fun). This attitude has been carried out through the rest of the singles the band dropped and now their debut record as well.

The record also smartly avoids the trappings that sank the genre back in the late noughties, being a collection of tightly written songs that don't outstay their welcome - as opposed to the repetitive 'laddish' anthems desperate for teenage guys with dark fruits to overplay at festival campsites. The songs are produced much more in the less-is-more approach of the trailblazers of the genre like The Strokes, rather than the overly compressed, everything and the kitchen sink mess that so much 2000s rock became. Rhian Teesdale's vocals also set her apart from many of the acts the band are calling back to, dynamically shifting from a nonchalant drawl akin to Julian Casablancas to a Kate Bush-esque yelp, to spoken word, to riot grrl sarcasm and aggression. 

The opener Being In Love exemplifies this clever simplicity well, being a song about all the cliché negative feelings associated with romance - e.g. feeling sick and lethargic. But instead of comparing love to these things, the theme is inverted and Rhian lists these feelings and concludes to them feeling like being in love. Combined with the swirling, detuned guitar lines; it makes the track a whole lot of fun. The irreverence of Chaise Longue is carried through the other singles with Angelica being about shit parties in your mid-20s where no-one knows whether to go wild like they used to or to act like sophisticated adults and bring some lasagne. The track has this thick and noisy post chorus instrumentation that is surprisingly heavy. Wet Dream sees Teesdale imagine what a certain guy's fantasies may be, with ridiculous scenarios described over a catchy dance-punk groove. Ur Mum, much like Chaise Longue, is a simple post-punk tune with some glorious lyrics tearing into an ex-lover who just lazes around smoking weed all day. "I feel sorry for your mum" is as about as blunt as it can get. The song closes out with Rhian proclaiming to give her longest and loudest scream, before going ahead and showing us. All of these songs are just so fun and catchy.

The slower tracks also hold up pretty well too, leaning into the more neo-psych territory. I Don't Wanna Go Out ebbs and flows through its lose and swirling structure. The track is about growing out of party culture and feels like the hazy hangover that becomes more frequent as you get older. Loving You and Piece Of Shit are cathartically bitter ballads about shitty guys, matched to lethargic and hazy guitars. The closer Too Late Now is also a bit more of a slow builder, despite in actuality being about the same length as all the other songs. The song is about the uncertainty and pressures of young adult life, and how sometimes you only need simple pleasures despite what is told to us. The track builds in pace from a sluggish first verse, into a tense spoken word middle section, before exploding for the remainder of the tune.

There are a couple of moments where the record feels a little derivative, primarily the repetitive 2 chord garage rock riff of Oh No (despite some great lyrics and vocal moments from Teesdale) and the underwritten Supermarket. Supermarket really feels like filler to be honest, it's repetitive and not all that catchy or unique - especially compared to some of the earworm singles earlier on in the record.

Wet Leg is just a fun, well written indie rock album. What it does might not be the most revolutionary thing, but it does it well. I just can't imagine anyone listening to a track like Angelica or Ur Mum and not having a smile on their face. I know it'll be in my rotation for the whole summer at the very least.

Top Tracks: Being In Love, Chaise Longue, Angelica, I Don't Wanna Go Out, Wet Dream, Loving You, Ur Mum, Piece Of Shit, Too Late Now

8/10

Black Country, New Road - "Ants From Up There" (2022)

Quickly following up from their breakthrough debut last year, Black Country, New Road's second album feels notable in quite a few ways. Much like their fellow scene contemporaries, black midi, the group have change up their sound a great deal for their sophomore record. However, where black midi traded the most abrasive elements of their sound for something less harsh, yet more technically complex and experimental; BC, NR have switched their experimental and jazz leanings for a much softer fusion of post-rock and chamber pop, with some actual pop hooks to boot. The record is also significant because the band announced the departure of lyricist and vocalist Isaac Woods just days before the records release to prioritise his own mental health. It's important to acknowledge that as the record is clearly revolved around Isaac's mental state with some deeply personal and haunting lyrics.

The record runs as if it is a break up album, although it is hard to to tell whether that break up is recent, or something Isaac is struggling with even a long time afterwards. But it also feels so much deeper than that, like a real personal deep dive into Woods' psyche - it's one of those raw, no restraint mental breakdown records that just don't let up. This remedies my only real criticism of their debut, which was the lyrics of the tracks sometimes verged into absurd in-jokes as Woods was voicing his struggles through much more obnoxious and extreme characters. Here, the earnestness of the lyrics resonate so much more deeply, despite how sad and crushing they may be.

Accompanying the more grounded and consistent lyrical approach, are more sonically consistent and mainstream-palatable instrumentals. Gone are the dramatic shifts from klezmer to jazz to abrasive noise rock. All of the tracks here combine a mix of chamber pop and art rock and post-rock, and this consistent style allows for the impeccable song writing to shine even more so on this than For the first time. Despite half the tracks running over 6 minutes (some well past that), each song is so incredibly tight and perfectly paced. Instrumental switch-ups and swells come in at just the right times, with one of my favourite being the transition of Bread Song from meandering melancholy to tense regret just from the addition of the drums. The the complete switch-ups of the multi staged 12 minute closer, Basketball Shoes, keeps me engaged for the entire runtime; and I can't not mention the massive, cathartic swells of the choruses of Good Will Hunting and The Place Where He Inserted the Blade. They hit as these massive walls of raw emotion that you just can't help but be moved by.

Chaos Space Marine is the poppiest song the band has ever written, being a three and a half minute glam rock / piano rock song about how Isaac feels so disconnected from reality that he compares himself to a space marine. The song just goes for it in the second half and doesn't let up. The following song, Concorde, is much more of a slow burn; slowly building to an intense finale where the ornate chamber pop instrumentation comes crashing down. This song, along with Good Will Hunting, is the most overtly breakup-song the album gets, with lyrics as straight up as "I miss you" and "I was made to love you". The penultimate song, Snow Globes, breaks into cacophonous free drumming towards its end as Isaac repeatedly sings "Snow globes don't shake on their own", alluding to maybe how stuck he feels, looking to someone or something greater for help. The only part of the record that doesn't feel quite at the same level as the rest is the much calmer and reserved duo of Haldern and Mark's Theme. They are still both incredibly well written tunes, and I get that the album needs some breathing room, but they just lack that one moment of just complete awe that every other track here has at least once.

Honestly this album is phenomenal, and is such a great evolution from an already great debut. It proves that trading experimentation and novelty for accessibility is not a bad thing at all. It's still not a pop album, it's long, slow and deeply sad; but the song writing is brilliant - and some of the hooks will definitely be rattling around your head after you listen. This is probably going to be the best album I'll listen to this year, and it came out in February - its just that good!

Top Tracks: Chaos Space Marine, Concorde, Bread Song, Good Will Hunting, The Place Where He Inserted the Blade, Snow Globes, Basketball Shoes

9/10

The Wombats - "Fix Yourself, Not the World" (2022)

Out of the crop of late 2000s 'landfill indie' bands, The Wombats have certainly aged better than most. The bands cheesy, anthemic hooks have proven far less wince-inducing over the past decade than the awkward, laddish misogyny of the likes of The Fratellis and The Kooks. The band have also smartly evolved their sound over the years, with tracks like 2015's Greek Tragedy sounding closer to the 2010s' 80s revival indie pop of The 1975 than the watered down post-punk and garage rock of the scene they broke through in. This cumulated in 2018's Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, which took the band back to their early influences and stripped back the sound to match. It's a record that I enjoy to a fair amount, with strong catchy songs that shows the band's clear adoration of the early noughties indie trailblazers like The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys. Fix Yourself, Not the World follows up on a lot of the post-punk revival and dance punk elements of that record, but maxes out the scale and bombast - to varying results.

All is revealed by the opening track, Flip Me Upside Down. The track is so shiny and polished, but feels so predictable and safe. The vaguely dance-punk groove is rigid and lifeless, the hook bland and by the numbers, and the maximalist production sanding off any scrappiness or energy that a track like this needs. The song is far from bad, but it's the kind of watered down early 2010's indie that the band have so far managed sidestep. This over-polished, super safe style is unfortunately carried through the entire album, from the Glastonbury-highlight-montage-core of This Car Drives All by Itself; to a softened up version of Death From Above 1979's heavier style of dance rock on Ready For The High; to the cringy millennial whoops on Don't Poke the Bear .

The lyrics on the album are also quite pessimistic, which is not a style which suits The Wombats well. While the outright cheese of the band has been slowly turned down over the years, the band maintained their sense of fun and levity. While nowhere near as downtrodden as say a Radiohead album (there's actually a really fun lyric referencing the band here), the band tries to tackle some broader societal and introspective themes on the album that they don't really have the writing chops to pull off. The songs are earnest, yet don't have much depth, and also try to retain the bands inherent silliness. It's a weird mix that never really finds balance.

The record still has its moments. Lead single If You Ever Leave, I'm Coming with You is a fun and universally emotional blast akin to a lot of their big hits in terms of melodrama and scale, and This Car Drives All by Itself is incredibly catchy despite how cliché it is. Method to the Madness builds slowly through a low-key, downtempo instrumental into a thunderous and chaotic climax which is surprisingly heavy for The Wombats.

All in all, the album is fine, but incredibly run of the mill. It sounds straight out of 2011 in all the wrong ways, the kind of watered down, overblown, festival-sized indie rock that garnered the 'landfill' term back then. I can see teenagers new to the band loving it, but it lacks originality even compared to the bands earlier work.

Top Tracks: If You Ever Leave, I'm Coming with You, Method to the Madness

5/10

IDLES - "CRAWLER" (2021)

New Year, last years albums! After a hectic 2021, hopefully 2022 will have a little more time for the blog. I'm aiming for posting roughly once a week-ish, so we'll see whether I'll keep it up. Anyway, IDLES came around with their fourth record, CRAWLER, at the back end of last year, and has come across to the slightly more critical reception of their last album, Ultra Mono. I really liked it, being my first proper introduction to the band. However, a lot of fans / critics felt the band were becoming caricature of themselves - the hardcore punk sound played out and the sloganistic lyrics too on the nose and shallow. CRAWLER, on the other hand, takes the band further into their more cerebral post-punk tendencies, with a greater emphasis on subtler guitar and electronic textures and more personal, reflective lyrics.

The bulk of CRAWLER revolves around singer Joe Talbot's journey out of substance abuse, making the record a much more sombre and moody one than Ultra Mono. This is exemplified by the opener, MTT 420 RR, where slow fizzling synths lead into Talbot's detached vocals. "It was February, It was cold and I was high" he sings over and over. The song is about a car accident he had while under the influence, and features some truly violent, horrific imagery. Obviously exaggerated (as he is still alive), but Talbot sings about seeing his own spinal chord. It's the bleakest moment on the album and very much a tone setter.

However the tone is a bit all over the place, which is this records biggest problem. The following track, The Wheel, follows in this dark path lyrically, detailing Talbots struggles pre-IDLES with finding a job and looking after his chronically ill mother when everyone around him had turned their back - besides his drug dealer, keeping him in 'the wheel'. However, the song musically is very much standard IDLES, and really doesn't convey the weight and trauma of the situation effectively. This tonal whiplash is at it's worst at the back end of the record. Progress is a fairly uneventful, low-key, electronic mood piece which is then followed by the 30 second thrash-punk of Wizz and then the most run of the mill IDLES sounding song on the album, King Snake. I get the thematic journey of the sequence, being that progress is about recovering from addiction, Wizz is the short high during a relapse and King Snake details the comedown and feelings of failure and depression that follow. However, Wizz is gone in a flash and King Snake doesn't sound like the themes it is trying to convey - it sounds like usual IDLES.

Not to say that the album is a swing and miss, because it very much isn't. It feels like more of a half step than a full embrace of a new sonic path. There are songs that marry IDLES' older style with these new themes quite well. Stockholm Syndrome and Meds are more righteous in there approach, calling out people who judge addicts and Talbot calling out his past self for all the damage his addiction caused, which suits the bands blaring guitars and thunderous drums more than some of the more harrowing moments on the album. However the best songs on the album (alongside MTT 420 RR) are the two most left field (also the two singles surprisingly). Car Crash builds on the hints of electro-industrial and noise rock from Ultra Mono and chugs away and builds with so much momentum, until the inevitable release where Talbot realises he is a 'car crash'. The Beachland Ballroom, on the other hand, is the grounding weight and heart of the album. It is a punked up soul tune with so much passion and expression in Talbots voice. It's the moment of connection and humanity that keeps the album from being too sour and depressing. The record also closes well, with Talbot coming out the other end on The End, singing the mantra "In spite of it all, life is beautiful". It gives the record a full, satisfying arc and progression.

While the lyrics and themes on the record are really detailed, interesting and well constructed; the album as a whole feels more like a half step into a new sound - leaving it a bit caught in no mans land. It's unsure whether to be sombre and dejected, or angular and abrasive, or loud and righteous. It lacks the energy and fire of Ultra Mono, but doesn't go all in on anything to replace it. There are still some top notch tunes on the album, and it's greater depth is probably going to win back a lot of people that thought Ultra Mono was a little too lightweight.

Top Tracks: MTT 420 RR, Car Crash, Stockholm Syndrome, The Beachland Ballroom, Meds, The End

6/10