¡Forward, Russia! – Life Process

It was love at first sight, but completely superficial. Which was fine initially, but as soon as I was eventually asked to listen to its problems, I grew bored. This left me debating our future together.

The album opener Welcome to the Moment (The Rest of your Life) is incredible! It’s beauty hidden in aggression. A track that will definitely feature on one of my future mixed CDs.

But what happens, is that this aggression goes on for a bit, and you become a little lost. It’s around about this point that you search through your CD collection to find your next listen.

There is hope. My feeling is that this album may be a grower. I can visualise this in the future – a particular mood that requires some angst. The blood red album catches my eye. Then finally, I understand why I used to see people with ¡Forward, Russia! t-shirts.

 

Song of the album – Welcome to the Moment (The Rest of your Life)

-Christopher

Kyte – Dead Waves

This week saw the release of Bon Iver’s sophomore LP,  Radiohead uploading a previously unheard track onto YouTube, and Jimmy Eat World playing the entirety of Clarity and Bleed American back-to-back at London’s HMV Forum. Individually, these were incomparable and exceptional events in their own right. It would seem unfair to compare Kyte to such a high standard, but on a week such as this I have found it unavoidable.

Dead Waves is one of those albums that has had the needle of my judgement jumping from extremes. At times it was very pleasant; at others they were merely there, but largely it was in that middle ground where they stood. The majority of the songs are very synth-centric, heavily processed drum beats and adorned with Nick Moon’s hushed vocal style on top. And that’s fine, until you come across the stronger ones where the guitar and bass are all brought to the level of synthetic sounds and the drums clearly originate from a kit. A band should always strive for a sound that reflect their strengths and abilities- it makes it all the more disappointing then for Kyte to hint at their best but leave the territory largely unexplored.

Kyte are certainly a capable enough band, and the songs on Dead Waves are indicative of the potential that is there in glimpses and flashes. But on such a musically bountiful week that reminds us how music should be, the album just didn’t have enough to capture the attention for any longer than those all too brief moments.

Song of the album- Fear from Death

–Lyle 

Lykke Li – Youth Novels

If I wasn’t so lazy and had a weekly review deadline, then I would write the most beautiful review-novel on this album – chapter one would be called ‘Voice’.

I’m a sucker for the female vocal as it is, but there are certain singers that I consider, ‘Just the Most Incredible’, and Lykke Li is my new Feist. Her voice has a wonderful retro, fragile quality. For the most part I have no idea what she is singing about. What I do get, is that it’s important enough for her to sing about it the way she does.

Despite it being just her name on the record, I originally found the instrumentation a bit too minimal. I couldn’t help but remind myself of other musicians like Paul Banks and Tom Vek that have solo records that weren’t just about the voice. It was until I got past listening only to her voice that I realised that the instrumentation perfectly compliments her singing, allowing her songs to be as pure as she is willing to take them.

Song of the album  – Tonight

-Christopher

Iron & Wine – The Creek Drank The Cradle

Here’s something new- G.U.O.d.

Let’s take an example of G.U.O.d. – Cheerios. You know where you are with the lightly toasted Os: recognisable to the taste, acceptable at any point of the day and, occasionally, they’re exactly what you want. But then, three packets down the line, you realise it all tastes the same. Sure, they’re as pleasant as ever, but the spark is gone. The honeymoon is over.

In short, they’re good, but only Good Until Overdone.

Shoehorned, undoubtably, but the point is there. Some things have their place in time but without variety, saturation point can be reached pretty quickly.

The Creek Drank the Cradle was the debut for Iron & Wine, and it was certainly an amiable enough listen. My head bopped, my foot tapped, and at no point did I feel a need to skip a track. That said, I always felt surprised when it finished. Sam Beam’s delicate voice compliment the lo-fi acoustic and occasional banjo instrumentation, but nothing ever really stands out and nothing moves the album along. It’s all pretty flat from open to close and that’s what holds the album back from being anything better than good- where there’s no risk, there can be no reward.

I’m very sorry Sam- we had a blast, truly, but Bon Iver is calling. He wants my folksy heart back, and not just for G.U.O.d.

Song of the album – Bird Stealing Bread

-Lyle