The Brent Flood – EP
The Brent Flood represents south London and brings together a belend of indie-rock and some “jam-band” elements. They sound like a mix of Jeff Buckley, British Sea Power and early Radiohead. “Heavy Petting” starts us off and the line in the song “there will be no heavy petting tonight” is so laugh inducing. “Burn” has a bit of twangy and wacky bass at the start and then the rest sounds a little to adult contemporary for its own good but it has a certain charm to it. “Beverly” slows it all down a bit. Lyrically, it seems really sweet but the hook sounds pretty awkward as the singing just doesn’t sound natural. They need to remain deeper and a darker tone.
By John Siwicki
Arcade Fire – Keep The Car Running
After being on the cover of Time Magazine, being on everyone’s top list and just having the best 2004/2005 year then anyone out there. How do you follow that up? U2 used “Wake Up” before some of their concerts. But, credit needs to be given they put together quite a record, “Keep The Car Running” is our first taste from the much-anticipated “Neon Bible.” It’s the most accessible tune they have ever made. Win almost feels like a preacher on this song but it seems to go with the albums theme. The song only gets your appetite boiling for the album which, is littered with big potentially classic songs.
By John Siwicki
Patrick Wolf – The Magic Position
Multi-instrumental Patrick Wolf is back with his third album “The Magic Position.” The album is his best work to date; it is unlike his previous two albums, in terms that he created a pop record. “Overture” has a big building heavy instrumental track that gets you invested into the record. “The Magic Position” features everything to get me to like a track, handclaps and strings and a damn good hook. It is such an upbeat track hard to imagine its on Wolf’s record. Another big tune is “Accident & Emergency” while it will not hit many right away it is an acquired taste. Its hard to truly describe this song because he is pulling off so much in one track.
‘Magpie’, features the guest vocalist Marianne Faithfull. If you combine her voice with that depressing piano and violin it is spine tingling brilliant. “The Stars” makes you feel like you are traveling in space with Patrick as your tour guide and yet lyrically quite a beautiful song.
“The Magic Position” made me take notice of Patrick. Prior to this record, I did not invest a lot of time into his work, yes “Wind In The Wires” is an excellent work but her he brilliant takes a next step forward. The instrumental work is bigger, the hooks are bigger and Patrick will soon be as well.
By John Siwicki
Brett Anderson – Love Is Dead
There isn’t much of Brett Anderson’s work I do not like. I have always been a Suede fan and I might be one of the few who did enjoy The Tears record. But, “Love Is Dead” the lead single off his debut solo album is just so..bland and forgettable. It is your typical lighters in the air ballad but this one just easily escapes your mind. It especially gets worse he talks about “plastic people wearing plastic smile.” It’s quite a disappoint but lets be honest it was going to happen eventually.
By John Siwicki