Articles
Chris_Trout has written the following articles:
Amanda Palmer - Theatre is Evil
Theatre Is Evil sounds MASSIVE.»
Plank! - Animalism
Plank! have turned in a debut album that requires no footnotes whatsoever because it’s stuffed with Tunes and Moments and Wit and other good stuff like that. »
Luke Haines - Outsider / In - The Collection
The slightly naff title of this budget two-disc Luke Haines compilation suggests that following the success of the old grouch’s very funny books, the time has come for a reappraisal of his music by the mainstream.»
Geese - All Property Is Theft; All Flesh is Grass
All Property Is Theft; All Flesh Is Grass is more than qualified to nose its way into the secret history of the margins of Anglo-eccentric pop in the aftermath of the old paradigm having gone tits up.»
Guided By Voices - Let's Go Eat the Factory
The band’s first album since 2004’s Half-Smiles Of The Decomposed, is something of a lucky dip.»
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical
Third albums are traditionally a stick-or-twist moment in an act’s life. Up your game or fuck off time. CYHSY mainstay Alec Ounsworth has obviously taken this on board, and he’s responded to the challenge by writing a bright, pithy record stuffed with delicious tunes, not only in the vocals but both guitars and (particularly) the keyboards, and generally all at the same time.»
The Whip - Wired Together
In current dance-rock terms, The Whip are at best a Steps to Hadouken!’s Spice Girls.»
Kathryn Calder - Are You My Mother?
For all the weightiness of its subject and understatement of its musical approach (more of which later) Are You My Mother? is a pop record stuffed full of good tunes.»
Holly Throsby - Team
An attempted malicious YouTube comment on one of Holly Throsby’s songs reads 'I blame Bjork for this kind of thing'. Idiot savant strikes gold or what? Right for all the wrong reasons.»
Indian Red Lopez - Empty Your Lungs and Breathe
For all the signifiers of 'passion' both musical and lyrical Empty Your Lungs And Breathe employs, it fails to engage.»
Something Beginning With L - Beautiful Ground
You need to listen to Beautiful Ground again, but louder.»
The Blood Arm - Turn and Face Me
While you’re prepared to agree in principle that The Blood Arm are probably quite good at making a big old stomping pub-rock-on-Nurishment racket it’s hard to find a good reason to care about them.»
Digitalism - I Love You, Dude
So, um, about that new Digitalism album, then? Oh. Yes. Erm, it’s good.»
Thomas Tantrum - Mad by Moonlight
Mad By Moonlight is constructed almost entirely from Great Pop Moments.»
Laki Mera - The Proximity Effect
The calm authority of musicians who know exactly what they want to do, are prepared to work stupid hours to realise and perfect it.»
Jóhann Jóhannsson - The Miners' Hymns
There’s a strength, a defiance, a hope in this music.»
Cymbals - Unlearn
If Cymbals want to make the 'irrepressible pop songs' alluded to by their press release, they’ll need to find somebody who can not only write said items but front them like she or he wouldn’t rather be somewhere else.»
Crass - Christ - The Album (reissue)
Christ: the Album is as close as Crass came to trying to appease the mainstream.»
Dutch Uncles - Cadenza
Dutch Uncles don’t suffer from trying to be clever. They positively relish it.»
Gorillaz - The Fall
Damon’s life in the bush of ghosts.»
Metronomy - The English Riviera
Possibly a little early to be wheeling out 'album of the year'-type assertions, but with The English Riviera Joseph Mount has set the bar nice and high.»
Munk - The Bird and the Beat
Overall, there’s not an awful lot of individuality on display here.»
Various - Killing Bono OST
On the whole Obligatory Soundtrack Albums suck. And this one really sucks.»
The Dears - Degeneration Street
It’s hard not to finish the album through gritted ears.»
Tom Tom Club - Genius of Live
In a world where the likes of LCD and !!! are situating the musical legacy of Talking Heads inside records that are contemporary, original and exciting, it’s difficult to see why anybody who wasn’t actually present would want to give eartime to Genius Of Live.»