Album Reviews – Page 18 – Spinning Platters

Album Review: God Help the Girl

God Help the Girl is supposed to be the soundtrack for a musical that has yet to be scripted and filmed. It is the brainchild of Stuart Murdoch from Belle & Sebastian. Murdoch said the project was born from material he couldn’t use for for Belle & Sebastian because the songs should be sung by three female characters. The outcome? A Belle & Sebastian record with female vocals and a light sprinkling of musical theater.

I first discovered God Help the Girl because of a message from a friend. “Stuart Murdoch is having an open call for singers! You should try out.” Upon further investigation I discovered it was true; if you logged into imeem.com you could download instrumental versions of two songs: a Belle & Sebastian favourite “Funny Little Frog” and a new song called “The Psychiatrist is In.” The instructions were to choose one and post it up on an imeem message board. I promptly downloaded the songs and started calling around to find someone to help me record them. In the end my friend Cynthia and I, with the help of her husband Russell, spent a fun weekend recording and submitting the songs. Then the obsession really began. I listened to everyone’s entry and made lists of favourites. Weeks later three finalists for each song were chosen to submit a second song (Cynthia and I did not make the cut; we were robbed!) and when the winners were announced I at least took solace in the fact that one of the winners,Brittany Stallings, had been my favourite singer.

I was excited to hear the final product after so much time and obsession, but I was bound to be overly critical of the singing.

Continue reading “Album Review: God Help the Girl”

Album Review: Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications

Further Complications sounds more like a midlife crisis than a record. There are a couple of great classic Jarvis songs, some really good lyrics, and some really awful hard rock music. I was nervous to hear that Jarvis Cocker was working with producer Steve Albini and my nervousness was founded. There is some Jarvis left in there somewhere, but on some songs the vocals are mixed so low you can barely make out the lyrics; and what is the point of that when you are listening to a record from one of the world’s greatest lyricists!?!

Further Complications indeed. Continue reading “Album Review: Jarvis Cocker — Further Complications”

The Leaky Faucet: Mika – Songs For Sorrow

Retail Release Date: June 8th, 2009 (only available on mikasounds.com)

Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: May 15h, 2009

Mika is a singer-songwriter from Lebanon via England. He released a record in 2007 called Life In Cartoon Motion, a glorious pop record that was equal parts Donna Summer, Queen, Rufus Wainwright, and Erasure. He also writes songs that tell stories so vividly that one could call him the Bruce Springsteen of disco.

On May 15th, he’s releasing an EP of acoustic songs to tide people over until his next full length record, due out next year. He also enlisted some of his favorite artists to make original works to help tell the stories on this EP. Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Mika — Songs For Sorrow”

The Leaky Faucet: Dredg – The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion

I hope Dredg aren't trying to say that they "mailed it in."

Retail Release Date: June 9, 2009

Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: May 6, 2009

Dredg really never had a shot on the major labels. They’re a prog rock band, first and foremost. This is, of course, why I like them. For their last album, Catch Without Arms, they teamed up with a big name producer (Terry Date) and had songwriting help from Queensyche’s Chris Degarmo. That’s a high powered team, and the album that came out of it had a lot of polish and shine, but also lacked some of the musical innovation found on the band’s older releases. In a lot of ways, it made their earlier albums sound like demos.

So now Dredg is off of the major label, yet they’ve maintained the polished sound, but–and this is exciting–they’ve also thrown caution to the wind in a lot of ways. No longer worried about trying to sound like the band the majors want them to sound like, they go back to the more experimental sounds of their earlier albums, Lietmotif and El Cielo. And it’s almost a complete success. Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Dredg — The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion”

The Leaky Faucet: Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor

He wanted to make sure he won the Silliest Album Cover of the Year award

Retail Release Date: June 2, 2009 (digital only)

Leaky Faucet Acquision Date: May 3, 2009

I’ll start with the album cover. Patrick Wolf is posed here as an alien who’s landed in an oddly shaped spaceship tent, in some crazy cyberpunk outfit with a purple glow behind his hand, and some ancient instruments at his campsite. What is Patrick Wolf saying about this album before you even listen to it? He’s saying, “please don’t take me too seriously. I’m an utter goofball.” Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Patrick Wolf — The Bachelor”

The Leaky Faucet: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Is this cover more interesting than the album?

Retail Release Date: May 25, 2009

Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: March 11, 2009

Phoenix is a French pop band that plays music that can only be described as Britpop. What does French Britpop sound like? It sounds like the band Phoenix. Perhaps I should explain. Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”

Album Review: Graham Coxon – The Spinning Top

Once again Graham shows us his many talents, using his own art for the cover.

Graham Coxon’s new solo album The Spinning Top is due to be released on May 11th, a month before his former band Blur reunites for a series of reunion tours. I must admit that I have been in fangirl love with Graham Coxon since I was 16 years old, and The Spinning Top makes this fangirl swoon. Musically, we’re back to a simpler Graham, focusing on him and an acoustic guitar, unlike his last two more rock-tastic albums. Thematically, The Spinning Top is more complex. It is a concept album, following the story of a man from birth to death, but the theme gets a little lost. It comes across more as a way for Graham to expose his deep inner self without having to be held accountable for anything that he reveals.

Continue reading “Album Review: Graham Coxon — The Spinning Top”

Sing It Hasselhoff: Feltbeats (Tom Felton aka Draco Malfoy)

I am a sucker for actor albums. I have no control of the sick curiosity and need to either further worship (Zooey Deschanel) or further ridicule (everyone else) said actor for their musical exploits. Needless to say when I saw this EP by Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) I HAD to hear it. “Time Well Spent” has been out for about a year, but I just stumbled accross it last week. Little did I know it would have me going “Aw! It’s Draco!” while watching the new Harry Potter trailer.

Continue reading “Sing It Hasselhoff: Feltbeats (Tom Felton aka Draco Malfoy)”

Beirut: March of the Zapotec/Holland

Beirut-March of the Zapotec/Holland

Release Date: February 16, 2009

As a girl who claims to be quite a huge Beirut fan, my natural reaction when I first heard about the newest production from said band was, OMG! I had read in an article in Fader Magazine that front man, Zac Condon, had traveled down to the Oaxaca region of Mexico and recorded with a troop of local musicians known as Banda Jimenez of Teotitlan del Valle. This bit of information made Zapotec all the more exciting, as a blogger of Mexican decent, to feast my ears on. Continue reading “Beirut: March of the Zapotec/Holland”

The Leaky Faucet: Silversun Pickups – Swoon

Silversun Pickups – Swoon.

Retail Release Date: April 14, 2009

The Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: March 26, 2009

The Silversun Pickups new album Swoon landed on my hard drive last week. I wasn’t thrilled with the last Silversun Pickups album. I really liked their live show, but the energy of that show didn’t end up on the record. This album continues that trend, but is overall a far better album anyway. Why’s this?

Swoon is the kind of album that simply isn’t made much anymore: a major-label 90s alternative rock record. What I mean by this is that it has that shiny perfection in every sound and an overall gloss that makes it really easy to listen to. There’s strings in parts where there should be strings. The guitar is fuzzy but never distorted. The vocals are clean with just the proper amount of reverb. If you fondly remember the production style of Bush’s Sixteen Stone or Candlebox’s debut album, then you’re totally going to dig this record.

The songs are good here, especially the driving rhythm section. There’s a decent amount of dynamics here; Silversun Pickups don’t do Pixies-ish loud-quiet-loud too much, but rather slow builds from soft to loud. The lyrics sound cool, but in the end have no real meaning to me. I might not be paying attention that much because the groove is really quite excellent.

Again, these songs are likely to sound even better live, but this album is a good listen. Recommended.