Live review - Bombay Bicycle Club, Brixton Academy, 19/10/11

Written for and published by the wonderful For Folk's Sake

Bombay Bicycle Club gave the crowd at Brixton a real treat, rattling through the best of their material from the last couple of years as seamlessly as a band that has been together for decades.

They opened with ‘Shuffle’ a track from new album A Different Kind of Fix, and immediately the energy was through the roof. ‘Your Eyes’, a standout from the album, was next and heralded the entrance of Lucy Rose (onstage for the second time that night after playing as support as well as band Dry The River). If, at this point, the crowd thought they were in for a ‘new stuff only’ type of gig, they were swiftly proved wrong.  Jack Steadman and his pals then embarked on ‘Dust On The Ground’ from first album I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose. Given that this song is a quieter offering than many of the tracks on that album, the boys really rocked it on the night.

They revisited a lot of their much-loved older material throughout the set, even stopping to admit just before launching into the raucous ‘Open House’, “We haven’t played this for a couple of years.” This bit of communication was unusual in itself as the band barely stopped for breath between songs (which kept the energy rising relentlessly).  By the time we made a return to the most current album with ‘Leave It’ the crowd was well and truly warmed up. ‘Lights Out, Words Gone’ got perhaps the biggest reaction of the night, indicating that a large proportion of the crowd were recent converts.

‘Always Like This’ was a true highlight and made us wonder whether the band hadn’t taken a (small) leaf out of Beirut’s book – the addition of some brass gave the track an almost Latin vibe.

Jack took to the stage alone for the first song of the encore and sang a beautiful, more than faintly Thom Yorke-tinged, version of ‘Still’ – the last track on ‘A Different Kind of Fix’. Just Steadman’s powerful yet vulnerable voice and the piano echoed through the Academy, bringing everyone down to earth a bit before ending on a storming version of ‘What If’. The contrast between these two tracks provided a great example of what Bombay Bicycle Club can do: in one instant write beautiful music that, at its best, rivals the likes of Radiohead, and in the next make a venue full of people jump around to what has become an indie rock standard.

Album Review - Screaming Is Something, The Travelling Band

Written for and published on Amelia's Magazine.

The brand new album from The Travelling Band features all the trademarks of a good folk pop album, including introspective lyrics, fantastic harmonies and, as no self-respecting nu-folk band would be without, banjos a-plenty. With their sound deeply rooted in rock, folk and country The Travelling Band’s second offering Screaming Is Something will please the ears of acoustic music lovers everywhere.

Illustration by Natasha Thompson, you can see her blog, here.

The Travelling Band hail from Manchester, so the group are joining the ranks of some pretty impressive acts including Oasis, Elbow and Doves – although they much more closely resemble the latter two of that particular group. The first single from the record, Fairweather Friends could well have been inspired by their fellow Mancunians, the layering of instruments, shimmering guitars and affecting harmonies create a ‘big’ sound a la Elbow, perhaps even X&Y era Coldplay.

You’re reminded of their heritage every now and then too, when a Manc accent sneaks in, such as on Horizon Me And You. This is a fantastic folk pop song and shows real promise in their ability to create a catchy tune and yet make it their own.

It’s Sundial that claims the prize for best track on the album though, and it’s a real highlight – anthemic but all the while remaining sweet, “If I had a home to call my own/ then I wouldn’t need a sun dial/ to stop me roaming around” – it’s calling out for a sunny afternoon at a music festival one day this summer, and it stayed on repeat for a long while before my housemates and neighbours tired of it. Just give it a listen and see how long you can go without humming the chorus.

Indeed the band are no strangers to music festivals and actually got their break by winning the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition in 2008 where they then performed – I for one, am sorry to have missed them. A homemade video shows the boys hanging out, enjoying the sunshine, and performing Horizon Me and You at The Park at Glastonbury last year (above). And what an idyllic scene, boys performing their pretty music in the pretty countryside, makes you proud to be British.

Tracks Under the Pavement and Hindsight are perhaps a bit confused – the folksier sound definitely suits this band more than rocking out to guitars, but perhaps live this would actually work better. All-in-all this album passes in a hazy stream of sunny guitars and lilting harmonies, the slower songs are perhaps slightly less successful than the more upbeat tunes, which is where the band appear to really flourish, but if you’re looking for a soundtrack to kick off your summer then The Travelling Band’s new album Screaming Is Something could very well be the record you’re looking for.

Illustration by Melissa Dow, you can see her website, here.

The album is released on the 30th May 2011 on Cooking Vinyl. The band kicked off a UK wide tour this summer with a gig last night at The Nest in London. Details of further dates can be found here.

Album Review - The King of Limbs, Radiohead

Published originally over here by The 405.

This album, to me, is one of two halves, although the use of echo, and the decision to let Thom Yorke’s lyrics almost take a back seat, creates a relationship between each and every track.

The first half of the album is characterised by its agitated rhythms – a slightly aggressive tone even, such as on second track ‘Morning Mr Blackbird’ where Yorke asserts, "you’ve got some nerve coming here.” This section of the album seems to be where the band is really stretching the limits and experimenting with their sound.

The second half, especially the last three tracks, is easier to listen to and perhaps picks up where In Rainbows left off. ‘Codex’ is my personal favourite, cool and ethereal and including a really beautiful use of brass. This mellow vibe continues on ‘Give Up The Ghost’ and on ‘Separator’. The last song on the album, ‘Separator’s’ refrain of “wake me up” is fitting because when The King of Limbs finished you almost feel as if you’ve woken up from a deep and wonderful dream.

Album Review - Memphis, Magic Kids

Also published over at amazing The 405.

Much like the bands’ hometown and the name of their album, Memphis, Magic Kid’s debut evokes thoughts of a bygone era, Elvis Presley, 1950’s high schools, and vintage rock and roll. The group of five’s debut provides 11 snippets of sunshine-filled surf pop that verge on the sickly sweet.

A lot has been made of the band’s Beach Boys influences, and there is no getting away from it. The lilting pop melodies, smooth vocals and backing harmonies are in full swing from opener Phone and are more than reminiscent of some of Brian Wilson and co.’s best work.

There are modern flavours too though – the electric guitars that appear in some of the album’s best tracks are the kind that have been made cool again by the likes of Vampire Weekend and the instrumentation, when it is stripped-down, is not dissimilar to the work of Dev Hynes of Lightspeed Champion fame.

Stripped-down instrumentation, however, seems to be missing from Magic Kids’ vocabulary. In some instances you wonder if while recording the album they couldn’t have benefitted from perhaps telling the best part of the orchestra to go home that day.

Horns, strings, pianos, guitars, sleigh bells, handclaps, you name it they are all thrown into the mix making a big sound which can detract from what are essentially well crafted little pop songs. Literally little, many of the songs are just over two minutes long.

Candy gets the ball rolling with the cutesy indie pop theme that runs throughout most of the lyrics and pretty melodies on Memphis: ‘There’s no baby sweeter than my baby”, they trill.

Hideout is as close as Magic Kids are willing to get to a ballad and it works to provide a quiet breather from the almost relentless cacophony of pure pop.

By far the best track on the album, however, is Hey Boy. Yes it comes complete with dreamy choir, horn motifs and other 60’s influences but it also goes to show that the fundamentals of making a brilliant pop song have remained the same for decades and Magic Kids are masters of their craft.

Sailin’ is similar in that it feels as if it could have been around forever, the lyrics are twee as ever - there is not much depth of meaning here, “We’ll cruise around the Isle of Man, I could be working on my tan.”

And perhaps therein lies the biggest flaw of this album, after a few listens some of these songs change from the endearingly sticky sweet to sickly sweet, and you do begin to hope Magic Kids might change the record.

Released August 31 2010.