James Arden checks out the garage rockers latest album.
The Christian rock band from Brighton bring religion to the masses.
Recipe for modern R'n'B album: liberal helpings of guest rappers and an overdose of sexual euphemisms.
Camera Obscura: My Maudlin Career
Written by Rich Powell.
Indie-pop outfit Camera Obscura may have been alive and kicking for 13 years now, but surprisingly this is only their fourth album. Perhaps it’s partly due to such a curb on recording activity that the Glaswegians have been able to retain such a striking freshness in sound; in places My Maudlin Career possesses the vibrancy of a debut release. The opener, ‘French Navy’, travels eagerly along as Tracyanne Campbell’s vocals dreamily pine away atop the serenity of Kenny McKeeve’s guitar, while ‘The Sweetest Thing’ does exactly what it says on the tin via the charm of its swooping-strings accompaniment.
After the smile-inducing opening, momentum seems to slip away slightly; tracks like ‘Away With Murder’ plod just a little too much and ‘Swans’ sounds like a Morrissey track that has overdosed on herbal tea.
But just as interest begins to lag, the album suddenly bares its soul with ‘James’, a sympathy-winning song about being dumped, complete with a radiant blend of organ and guitars that acts as a perfect emotional springboard for everything that follows, from the superbly judged yearning of ‘Careless Love’ to the imaginatively produced reminiscences of ‘Other Towns & Cities’.
And then, just as the all the heartache is becoming too much, a barrage of drums and trumpets heralds ‘Honey in the Sun’, a joyous finale that grabs you by the hand and takes you sprinting off into the sunset. Lovely!
Camera Obscura: Official | MySpace | on Spotify
PJ Harvey & John Parish: A Woman A Man Walked By
Written by Anna Goldbeck-Wood.
Despite having had her music recommended to me countless times by the people that know me best, I admit, this was my first dip into PJ Harvey’s raw and refreshing sound world.
The long awaited result of on-going creative partnership with confidante John Parish, this album, in true PJ Harvey style, presents a series of three minute fantasies. PJ Harvey doesn’t like to sing as herself, I am told, and so instead adopts the personas that embody the songs she sings. When woofing and screaming is involved, this may seem somewhat of a relief.
Charming, candid seeming simplicity of song writing and delivery, make even the more ‘challenging’ songs thrilling and artful. From the sweet waltzing ‘Leaving California’, bluesy ‘Passionless, Pointless’ that echoes Jeff Buckley, to the mournful ‘The Soldiers’ whose soothing musical facade that belies its dark story, to the contemplative, meditative organ of ‘Cracks in the Canvas’, and the edgy ‘I Will Not’ that is interrupted with an eerie tinkering piano solo, the album is captivating from start to finish. But, contrary to what the words 'woofing' and 'poetry' might have you imagine, it is it’s unassuming nature that makes it so.
Harvey’s admirable vocal freedom in creating her songs’ various personas is compelling. So much so, that I found myself hardly listening to the lyrics at all. Just like Björk, the essence of each song comes across so strongly that often the words seem almost redundant.
To my surprise, PJ and John cast the album off as a mere side-project. But maybe that’s what made it so refreshing. It just is what it is; take it or leave it.
PJ Harvey & John Parish: PJ Harvey Official | John Parish Official | on Spotify
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