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Time, dear friends, is ticking away; it feels like only yesterday that DiS was chomping on Easter Eggs, but Christmas is only days away. Terrifying, isn’t it? Us we-haven’t-shopped-yet sorts certainly think so.
But November, it’s not forgotten: bands released records during the month best known for some old and very dead dude’s attempt to blow up parliament. What would have happened if he’d succeeded? Would we still blast small-scale missiles skywards and revel in their sparkly destruction? Probably. People do so enjoy blowing things up, after all. But those records: there were some, some good ones, and here are some of those some.
So read about them, and stick them on your Christmas list. If you’ve been a good boy or girl this year, maybe Santa’ll empty his bulging sack into your ears…
Alexander Tucker
Furrowed Brow
ATP Recordings
“Best consumed whole – splitting proceedings into seven, for that is the number of tracks here, disregards the neat ebb and flow of the record; it overlooks the cohesion that makes the passage from A to Z so rewarding – Furrowed Brow is without a doubt Tucker’s most accomplished foray into the recorded sphere of everything musical, a great improvement upon his Old Fog collection of 2005. The listener will wade through sludgy swamp water, glide across still and sparkling seas and be tumbled against their will from the tallest of cascades – every pause-punctuated juncture of the journey finds the magnetic compass misfiring wildly, sending the wanderer into uncharted territories.”
Read Mike Diver’s full review here
Various
Future Love Songs
Angular Records
“There are, to say the least, a fair few doses of mix ‘n’ match unexpectedness in here… Tthis is a rather fantastic compilation and that you ought to go and buy it, as it will introduce you to some stuff that you might rather like. And then you can go and buy more stuff by the band that made that stuff, and good stuff will therefore abound. Oh, and for the purposes of this review, the tracks of no particular interest don’t exist. You should try this approach to life sometime. It’s very liberating.”
Read holliy’s full review here
Killswitch Engage
As Daylight Dies
Roadrunner
“Ninety per cent of every new fad of a genre can be dismissed as a bunch of bands that nobody will care about in five years, so it’s easy to make the case that nobody should care about them now. There are some interesting exceptions that somehow gain credibility as time goes on, and there are the ones that everyone always knew, or at least hoped, would always make the grade. With metalcore, there is one band that stands head and shoulders above the rest. They go by the name of Killswitch Engage…”
Read Raz’s full review here
Jarvis
Jarvis
Rough Trade
“To a relative cynic of the genre (no, I don’t have a secret Menswe@r fetish) it surprised me just how much I enjoyed Jarvis, Cocker’s first solo record. I didn’t expect to be able to stomach that famous personality over an entire 40-odd minutes, having only dipped in tentatively on previous occasions. I needn’t have worried, since there is nothing grating about this album’s widescreen pop vision. Those who came across cheeky pre-release goody ‘Running The World’ will have noted that Cocker has not entirely abandoned his working class righteousness, and yet its expulsion to hidden track territory is significant as it doesn’t sit well with the mature feel of the remaining tracks.”
Read Tom Edwards’ full review here
Blood Brothers
Young Machetes
Wichita
“To some long-termers Young Machetes will be received in a similar manner to its older sibling Crimes; that album, too, incorporated keyboard melodies and solidified compositional structures within what was formerly a lot of noise at times. Crimes is unfairly regarded in some quarters as a regressive step for the band, a tumbling from a path best followed, but in fresh hindsight it was an essential release that enabled Blood Brothers to make Young Machetes. It’s proved to be a vital stepping stone, a bridge between stylistic focuses. This is Crimes refined, sculpted so that its edges aren’t as jagged as many sound-clashes past have proved to be; it exhibits managed eccentricity enough to stoke the furnaces of intelligent, demand-more punks worldwide.”
Read Mike Diver’s full review here
Viarosa
Where The Killers Run
Pronoia
“Viarosa's debut album more than deserves this second bite of the CD shopper's cherry. Its original appearance eighteen months back inspired a hefty mound of wildly enthusiastic press reviews but somehow, whether it was distro’ problems or a lack of widespread gigging, the band didn't manage to capitalise as they should have. Built around melodic violin, banjo, a resonating guitar and lyrics filled with images of times long past, visualised through a sometimes Cohen-, Cash- or Morphine-crafted vocal, places them as Americana. But that's a convenient tag that doesn't tell the whole story…”
Read Jane Oriel’s full review here
The Long Blondes
Someone To Drive You Home
Rough Trade
“Of course, any minor gripes with this LP are completely forgotten when listening to the indescribable majesty of 'Giddy Stratospheres', the standout track of the album and, quite frankly, a standout pop song full stop. Sounding like the most vital thing you could hope to discover, it's fresh, with a nod to an indie era or two past, and seemingly executed with a wry smile and a pint of bitter in hand. Someone to Drive You Home is the sort of album that guitar-toting indie bands will be aiming at for a decent while now, but regardless of its influence, right here and now it's just an honest, forthright and accomplished LP.”
Read Colin Robert’s full review here
Joanna Newsom
Ys
Drag City
“Ys is a truly special album that takes you gently by the hand and leads you through a distinctive magical landscape. Drift into it and you'll find your imagination dancing through wistful showers of falling leaves and kicking through tangles of knee-deep poppies, counting stars and wandering vast landscapes, lamenting a broken heart through abstract and taciturn poetry, or sinking back through the centuries to land gently back on your feet some time later…”
Read John Brainlove’s full review here
Brakes
The Beatific Visions
Rough Trade
“Opening with the admittedly BSP-sounding (in places) 'Hold Me In The River', it soon becomes apparent that these guys all have a dream - the same dream - to be a part of some all-encompassing, genre-trespassing rock and roll quartet that sounds like a combination of all the best bits of the artists and songs they love without ever really mimicking anyone at all. So with that in mind, there are politics-addressing punk mash-ups ('Margherita'), countrified rock without any cheesy elements ('If I Should Die Tonight', 'On Your Side'), haunting ballads ('No Return', 'Isabel'), and even the conception of a new form of dance ('Spring Chicken')…”
Read Dom Gourlay’s full review here
Uzi & Ari
It Is Freezing Out
Own Records
“Tracks skirt around the edges of acts like Mogwai and The Postal Service – beats are supplemented by drones and twinkles direct from the outer reaches of the solar system – but the overall impression left by It Is Freezing Out is one previously associated with The Album Leaf. It’s these echoes that characterise the album’s latter stages – beginning buoyantly, it drifts into dreamscape territories with wonderful grace and assured compositional confidence. Shepard’s never hurried: his songs are allowed to expand at a casual pace, with ne’er a too-spontaneous spark of inventiveness or awkward change of direction to be heard.”
Read Mike Diver’s full review here
The Ties That Bind Us
Box Records
“Put simply, there's something here for everyone no matter what part of the hymn sheet you choose to sing from, and more importantly The Ties That Bind Us could possibly be the most ambitious debut by a British male solo artist this year. As Bruce opines on the luscious 'What Are You Waiting For', "I hope you can see that we've made it." You are about to, mate. Trust me."
Read Dom Gourlay’s full review here
To browse single reviews for November, click here; click here to scan over November’s live highlights.
