The xx don’t come at you with all guns blazing. They don’t shout. They don’t even play their instruments particularly loud. Instead, they kiss and caress, lulling you into an amorously comatose state. You could almost say they put you in the mood for loving. But the unrequited kind where you love, lose and thanklessly long. The xx even have the good grace to provide the disheartened dialogue for it all. From the aptly titled ‘Intro’ – a fleeting two Continue Reading
From one of the most annoying songs in the history of music to one of its most annoying frontmen – neither are actually contained on this debut album from whopping 11-piece collective Edward Sharpe & The Magnificent Zeroes, but both are relevant. First up, ‘It Ain’t What You Do, It’s The Way That You Do It’; not actually the song itself, but the sentiment inherent in its title. There’s nothing here that is especially remarkable, except for perhaps its spirit. Continue Reading
I’m not a huge soul/r&b fan so it means something for me to say that this documentary, out on DVD in September, is one of my films of the year. In the early seventies Billy Paul hit the charts both sides of the Atlantic with his archetypal fine-wine-and-leopard-skin-rug soul classic ‘Me and Mrs.Jones’. However, his follow up single ‘Am I Black Enough for You’ flopped. Was his material too contentious for mainstream audiences? The documentary – a mix of interviews Continue Reading
A follow-up to the band’s ever so slightly disappointing Domino debut, ‘Limbo Panto’, ‘Two Dancers’ sees the Leeds/Kendal four-piece exchange the ‘fascinating’ but frequently ‘fathomless’ and unruly afro-pop trickery that marred such blissfully tender paeans as ‘The Devils Crayon’ for a far less chaotic celebration of all that is eloquent and ugly about old Blighty – whether that’s the not unsubstantial charms of the girls in Whitby and Hounslow or the thrilling, appalling beauty of receiving a good kicking at Continue Reading
High hills, valleys, fields, stiles, white dogs, black dogs, yellow dogs, lame dogs, limping dogs, poachers, roaring gales, getting wet and endeavouring to procure lodgings for oneself with little more than eighteen pence. Not the kind of imagery apt to be thrown up by either Lily Allen or Little Boots admittedly (with the exception of poaching, perhaps) but in the context of James Yorkston, not entirely unpredictable, pretty much because Yorkston has been roaring the gospel, rolling the harr and Continue Reading
Some people rest on their laurels whilst others lay the full 140 pounds of their own body weight upon them and press down enthusiastically. Former Cranberries banshee, Dolores O’Riordan sadly conforms to the latter. In fact she nor any of her co-fruits have managed to offer anything genuinely worthwhile since their jangling, spectral debut spat up a handful of worthy hits in the mid-90s. ‘Zombie’ was disappointing, ‘Salvation’ was more disappointing still and ‘Ridiculous Thoughts’ was just plain ridiculous. So Continue Reading
Singers who can’t sing are intensely subjective and tricky things for reviewers. Sometimes they work for you, and sometimes they don’t and it’s hard to say why either way. Singers who can’t sing usually crawl along the root note of a chord occasionally leaping up to something higher before ducking back down to the safety of the Dah-na-nah. It’s hard for me to imagine John Lydon screaming ‘Anger is an energy’ any other way than the way he does it Continue Reading