Ferraby Lionheart - Catch The Brass Ring

This young American singer has produced an album of indie folksongs. He looks like someone who has known much adversity,rather like the more commercial Rufus Wainwright. His vocals are somewhat ponderous and his sound on these songs is rather bland.

I would describe him as Rufus Wainwright without the “big” sound and theatricals.
This boy has potential;he seems interested in environmental issues and mixes his folksy style well with a brass and strings backing,on this album.

I won’t dismiss this record-it would have been good to see this singer/songwriter at Glastonbury this year,but maybe hopefully he will appear on their itinerary in 2008.

Michael Eavis,are you reading this?

By Juliet Robertson

The Perishers - Victorious

A melodic West Coast sound from this Swedish band,pleasant enough. The title track has a nice chorus which I found myself humming to. Play this one on the CD player in the car,coasting along the LA freeway with the sun beating down.

My Own is a pleasing ambling track with a calm vocal. This one grew on me and I liked it. It does have a melancholic thread to it as well,but in a good way.

Carefree has a lovely tune -optimistic and easy on the ear. Sing it!

Never Bloom Again. This is my favourite one,a bit of a lament,which I always like in a song. For such a happy-sounding band this comes across as a little strange,but no matter. It’s a fitting and beautiful tune.”I’m sure we’ll grow….but we’ll never bloom again.”

Midnight Skies is a track I also liked as its very soothing to listen to,with its gentle guitar behind a pleading folksy vocal, to begin with. I could compare this to Snow Patrol somewhere,with a lovely synth break enhancing the whole, and a chorus of “aah aahs”rounding off,amongst an instrumental climax.

8am Departure has a David Gray-style piano heralding a slow ballad which I found very beautiful.

We’ve all experienced the emotions in this song’s words.”I wish I didn’t
have to go home
I wish I could stay
if just for a day
I wish I could stay.
But the worst part of it all I don’t know when I’ll see you again-I’ll see you again.”

Lovely.

Why does this band’s sound sometimes remind me of The Turtles? On To Start Anew, their sound is very West Coast,nothing remotely Swedish about it at all. A very pleasant song.

Almost Pretty IS a pretty song,quite slow and sad-the instrumental backing is rather better than the vocal, but the lyrics are good.”I wanna stay right here - here are the lights just right…Now it’s you and I ….Just you and me now”.

On Best Friends I can see how this band is Swedish. This is a gloomy one and could be a depressing listen. Another lament to a lost friendship-reflective and a tad miserable and regretful .Not too keen on this track.

Come Out Of The Shade is a little more uplifting,but still with that introspective thread running through. The tune is nice,however this one’s pretty Swedish,and I’m  not talking about Abba!

All in all,this is a polished and accomplished album and it should hopefully make its mark on the UK charts somewhere. I would describe this band as a Swedish Snow Patrol.

By Juliet Robertson

Cooper Temple Clause - Make This Your Own

4) Connect

The Holloways - So This Is Great Britian

Summer is coming to an end and all that we have to remind us of it is a fading tan, and no money. that was until The Holloways came along. Formed in 2004 the London foursome have been gigging like no bodies business creating a loyal fan base and great expectations for their debut album.

The album title comes from the opening track, “so this is great Britain” whether the band are cleverly self referencing themselves or not is unclear, but great Britain is certainly becoming an array of post pubescent teens making pop guitar music. The semi working class accents and colloquiel terms such as “jar” (pint) fail to make this song edgy. From the opening electric guitar bar of god save the queen, this album is as obvious and clich?s the bar it opens with. T

How ever it is good fun and takes the frost bite out of the fact we are going into winter. Alfie Jacksons harmonica on tracks like “two left feet” bring an element of country while Rob Skippers ska riffs bring an element of jumping cool and pay homage to the ska bands of the 80’s who also tried to bring about political change via music, the specials being the most obvious. How ever the special had something to say, this band doesn’t.

The main flaw in this band is that there is nothing new. Since the Libertine’s came about there has been a spate of English garage bands, The Automatic, Babyshambles, The Kooks and many many more. Yes this band are fun and yes every one’s going to know who they are because the NME will talk about them. But this album has nothing to offer other than an amalgamation of every thing you heard on XFM in the last few months.

By Gabriel Larmour