Reviews

Weekly Reviews For July 31, 2006

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I am Managing Editor at Metal4Life

I also contribute reviews to getreadytorock

I am also featured reviewer at spacerock.co.uk

I was Editor & reviewer at MetalUK.

New Reviews

Tigs - Something New

Tricky one this. Hated it the first time I played it. It seemed too one dimensional and forced. But swayed by the splendid B-side "Good Things" - an off kilter blend of Altered Images and US power pop with cojones - I stuck to it.

And repeated exposure does reveal some charms to "Something New", although it still seems a bit Franz Ferdinand. It's got a good hook and chorus, but Tigs seems to be holding back a bit, which is what makes "Good Things" such a treat.
So I've decided to pretend it's an old fashioned double A-side which means I can say it's a splendid slice of new wave influenced pop rock you should definitely investigate. Oh, and the single that comes after this one, "Mind Invader" is a bit tasty too.

Various - The Royal Dan (A Tribute To Steely Dan)


I've always held a special degree of loathing for Steely Dan. I don't think it's actually their fault as I'm reasonably sure they didn't hold a planning meeting 30 years ago to set out action points with the express aim of acquiring my enmity. No, it's other peoples reaction to their music that causes the bile to rise. 'Ooh, their music is so sophisticated and intelligent, it has much more depth than the prole like sounds you listen to. You must be really stupid not to appreciate them'. My fist, your face. Pretentious bastards like you should be taken out by some serious class warfare, and I'm loading my rifle right now.

You will then, doubtless, be wondering why I'm reviewing this CD. Well, it is chock full of guitar genii and nowhere on the sleeve does it actually use the name Steely Dan. I assume that Mike Varney, who exec produced this, must have ran slap bang into some trademark / cash related issues that wouldn't permit it. Which means for an hour or so I can pretend it's merely an all star instrumental guitar album.

And it's the big names that stand out with some sparkling turns. A fiery Steve Morse on "Bodhissatva", a subdued and sublime Al Di Meola on "Aja" and a fluid Steve Lukather on "Pretzel Logic". But the best of the lot are the always fabulous Jimmy Herring who has his guitar singing on "The Fez" and should really do an album of guitar duets with Walter Trout, and the new to me Elliott Randall who picks out some fine rhythms on "Hey Nineteen".

Having a core band backing the guitarists helps create a constant flow but this is as close as I'll ever get to the real thing.

Low Sparks - Out Here In The Woods

Now see, this is good. You can't go far wrong with kazoo solos, Zuton like choruses and tales of ladies who wear sunglasses in bed. In fact I have decided that this is going to be the soundtrack for the summer now that Guillemots have gone and done proper grown up things like trying to have a career.

After all, if you're going to be in a band and release singles, at least do me the courtesy of being interesting. And Low Sparks do a roaring trade in quirky, melodic pop with added concertina value. With bonus points for naming themselves after a Traffic album, who may have been shite, but were mildly bonkers thanks to mad Jim Capaldi.

You'll be hard pushed to find a better 13 minutes in the world of pop this year, with "She Was Always Cool", the delight of delights.

Rotating Leslie - Fire! Fire!

Worst band name of the year so far, offset by calling this single "Fire! Fire!", with bonus points for exclamation marks. Even better it's a limited edition 7" vinly single with a B-side called "Piss In The Disco". So you should buy it anyway regardless of anything I might say from this point forwards.

But is it any good, I hear the few layabouts who ignored my previous advice, asking. It's big, bouncy, lively and has people shouting "Fire! Fire!" every so often. Which is splendid and why you should have bought it when you had the chance, back in paragraph 1 land. The flipside is a bit mad, mind, as they decide to try and go down an indie dub route that does have the added bonus of handclaps, but which has been scientifically proven to lead to madness. But then so does running about shouting "Fire! Fire!". Marvellous.

Costar - This Awakening

Sorry, don't get it. All I'm hearing is the sound of a thousand other wannabee indie bands who mistake limited ability at playing an instrument for being musicians.

Costar try hard and there are slight touches that prevented this single from being hurled into the rank pile marked enemeewank. There is some good keyboard work which gives a sheen to proceedings and when they go all spaghetti western on "Special" it actually gets interesting.

And the remix of lead track, "This Awakening" has considerably more life and personality than the original. Millionaires by Xmas, in all likelihood..

Tim Hain & Sunnysideup - One Man Went To Mojo


When the first thing I see is a puntatic title my hand instinctively reaches for a pint of whisky that isn't there anymore. Which would be a shame as there is a lot to enjoy here. Mind you, I would exclude from that statement the use of the word 'bleggae' to describe the mixture of blues and reggae percussion present throughout a lot of the songs here. If you have to invent a word to describe it, then 'regalues' is much cooler.

The original material is better suited to the hybrid approach than the half dozen covers. After all, if I'd heard the desecration visited upon "For What It's Worht" before "Fine Time Child" or "Somebody Turn On A Light", then it would have been hammer smashed face time. Again. But the verve and life applied to the original material still manages to make this a winner..