Monday, 30 January 2012

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die Review





I tried dammit. I tried going into this review without mentioning hype. It’s becoming a byword on this blog and I really didn’t want to do it for fear of repetition. But forgive me general public, for I have sinned and with this particular review, it is an inevitability so hear me out.

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood of Colour Review



Contrary to your perceptions; Post-Hardcore does not equate to pornstars in berets standing around talking about their feelings. It’s actually a musical genre that people, like me, can lump together that would normally be titled as Emo, Screamo, Goth-Pop and sound completely pretentious doing so.

Fortunately, for Post-Hardcore band Enter Shikari, whose first album had all the stereotypes that made the album a samey, if consistently decent debut, their follow-up Common Dreads decided to incorporate elements from Dubstep to create an album that delivered neat ideas but overall, sounded muddled and confused.

Three years later, the North London outfit have entered the difficult realms of album three and I have to admit, the only reason I keep coming back to Enter Shikari like a battered housewife is the odd glimmer of something better amongst the filler. I liked Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour which gave way to buying Take to the Skies for three pounds in a sale. When Common Dreads came about; it was stand-alone single We Can Breathe in Space… which peaked my curiosity.

For A Flash Flood of Colour; it was Destabilise. With its big beats and bombastic feel, it was a song that did what Common Dreads couldn’t do consistently or as epically. So naturally, I gave their latest album a listen, not really knowing what to expect but some what optimistic.

Thursday, 12 January 2012

The Maccabees - Given to the Wild Review


Whilst 2011’s major theme was hype, 2012 looks set to continue the trend. We have Lady Gaga already in the middle of writing a no-doubt major selling follow-up to the long, tiresome Born This Way. Muse have again promised a radical change for their sixth album and with The Killers, Bloc Party and Animal Collective marking the year their returns; it looks set to be another year of huge, heavily hyped releases and the usual batch of mediocre rubbish.

So, where does 2012’s really start? It already has kids and it’s a somewhat surprising source.