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<title>RockFeedback > Recommendations</title>
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<title>The xx  Komedia, Brighton  1/3/5 [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:58:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[It&rsquo;s been a tough period for The xx. Not only did founder member Baria Qureshi leave late last year citing exhaustion as the reason, but Romy Madley-Croft&rsquo;s father died last month, with this Brighton date the first return to the stage since her loss. Add to this the fact the band are touring the hell out of their August debut (have you seen how long the dates run for?), and you could forgive them a failure tonight.
Certainly the first few numbers take a bit of easing in. &lsquo;Crystalised&rsquo;, so dependent on the bursts of rhythm from Jamie Smith&rsquo;s drum machines, misses the beat on one or two occasions, literally and stylistically. But he is, remember, doing Qureshi&rsquo;s work as well as his own now, and succeeds 99% of the time. Playing as a trio gives The xx a symmetry and succinctness to an already near-faultless artistic aesthetic that&rsquo;s irresistible. When a stunning lightshow arcs above them like the bottom half of the familiar &lsquo;X&rsquo; insignia for the downer than downtempo &lsquo;Fantasy&rsquo;, or when Oliver Sim murmurs in his just woken up, latently sexual purr on &lsquo;Heart Skipped A Beat&rsquo;, you file these moments to memory as classics. Smith moves from the electronic kit to the real thing for a cover of Kyla&rsquo;s &lsquo;Do You Mind&rsquo;, which is rousing to say the least, and even the ever-present &lsquo;Teardrops&rsquo; seems invigorated.
&ldquo;We need to work on our stage banter&rdquo;, notes Sim about ten tracks into the set &ndash; the first comment he makes all night. Perhaps they are nervous, perhaps it&rsquo;s a conscious decision, but as with so much of The xx&rsquo;s music, the beauty &ndash; of which there is plenty and which none dissipates live &ndash; comes from the unsaid, the implied, and the wordlessly understood. You sort of ache to hear what they&rsquo;ll do next.



//]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4546/the-xx-komedia-brighton-135/</link>
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<title>Lady Gaga  The Fame Monster [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:06:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[It&rsquo;s not that new, it might not be particularly &lsquo;Rockfeedback&rsquo;, and Lord knows the girl doesn&rsquo;t need the extra publicity, but I felt I had to write something about The Fame Monster. I really need to do something to help pass the time until I can YouTube Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce&rsquo;s forthcoming &lsquo;Telephone&rsquo; video &ndash; photos have been leaked, and ohmygosh you guys Gaga&rsquo;s hair is a phone. The song itself is glorious, and although both divas will have their work cut out topping Beyonce&rsquo;s marvellous breast-juggling performance in the Gaga-featuring &lsquo;Videophone&rsquo; video, Gaga&rsquo;s hair. Is. A. Phone.
You see, perhaps that&rsquo;s the slight problem I have with Gaga. The first time I heard &lsquo;Roses&rsquo; from her one-time would-be tour-mate Kanye West&rsquo;s 2005 Late Registration album, I was so strongly affected by it that I burst into tears, whereas now his public persona has overshadowed his music to the extent that I can&rsquo;t remember the last time I saw, heard or thought of his name without the words &lsquo;shut up&rsquo; prefixed in front of it. After an increasingly delightful set of public appearances on UK television, perhaps Gaga won&rsquo;t end up pulling a stunt so obnoxious that the President of the United States will be caught on tape calling her a &lsquo;jackass&rsquo;, unlike a certain someone. But her image &ndash; the clothes, the hair, the videos &ndash; threatens to eclipse her music. Sometimes I worry that the songs I love so much right now will one day be lost under a mountain of multi-coloured My Little Pony hair, drowning in a bath big enough to fit thirty people.
She&rsquo;s a confusing one, that Gaga. There&rsquo;s something quite wonderful about someone so musically well-trained with such highbrow and eclectic influences choosing to slum it in the world of mainstream pop, in a Heston Blumenthal Takes On Little Chef kinda way: pumping her tunes full of radio-friendly hooks and singing about disco sticks and bluffin&rsquo; with her muffin. (While I&rsquo;m riffing with my muffin, Lady Gaga Saves Little Chef #showschannel4shouldmake? Can you imagine?) She has a tattoo on her arm of a quote by the 19th century Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke which translates as 'In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?' This, adorned on the arm of the 21st century performance artist who wrote the words &lsquo;let&rsquo;s have some fun this beat is sick/I wanna take a ride on your disco stick&rsquo;.
As sick as those beats were, it wasn&rsquo;t until 2009&rsquo;s &lsquo;Bad Romance&rsquo; that I truly, madly fell for Gaga. Gaga&rsquo;s 2008 debut The Fame, featuring many of the songs she tearfully told the Brits viewers had been years in the making, had the misfortune of being released in the year that the Western world started finding all that Beautiful, Dirty, Rich stuff rather tiresome and two-thousand-and-late. (Sample lyric from &lsquo;Money Honey&rsquo;: &ldquo;damn I love the Jag, the jet and the mansion, oh yeah/and I enjoy the gifts and trips to the islands, oh yeah/It&rsquo;s good to live expensive, you know it&rdquo;. No we don&rsquo;t know it Gaga darling, we&rsquo;re broke, care to explain it to us?)
But &lsquo;Bad Romance&rsquo; was something else entirely. One of my favourite things about this song is that its video was recently featured on ITN as an example of the hypersexualised media which is forcing young girls to grow up too soon. I just adore the implication that ten year old girls are that influenced by Lady Gaga &ndash; perhaps gluing pearls to their faces and wearing six-foot high lace pompadour wigs. Perhaps even greater than that image is the song itself, an 80s synth power ballad interwoven with 90s furious, pounding beats, its every strand of sound laced together as tight and taut as Gaga&rsquo;s diamond-spangled arse. Produced by RedOne, Bad Romance is controlled chaos at its delirious best. If you can marvel at skill involved in that, you can even learn to love the &lsquo;rah-rah-ah-ah-ah/Roma-ro-ma-ma&rsquo; bit in the intro, I promise. The lyrics are influenced by the films of Alfred Hitchcock: &ldquo;I want your psycho, your vertigo schtick/Want you in my rear window/Baby it&rsquo;s sick&rdquo;. If Bad Romance were a Hitchcock film, it would be Vertigo: fairly disturbing, intoxicatingly beautiful.
Another stomping dancefloor ballad is the stunning &lsquo;Dance in the Dark&rsquo;, which formed (along with &lsquo;Telephone&rsquo;) part of the Alexander McQueen tribute which baffled Geri Halliwell and Courtney Love at the Brits and made the rest of us wish we had a keyboard with a built-in &lsquo;BITCH!&rsquo; button. Here an overachieving Gaga perfects the icy, gothic electronic pop sound that Britney has been dabbling in on &lsquo;Blackout&rsquo; and &lsquo;Circus&rsquo;. Dance in the Dark climaxes with our heroine lamenting the passing of a number of tragic icons (Princess Diana and JonBen&eacute;t Ramsey among them) in a &lsquo;Vogue&rsquo;-esque chant.
And then there&rsquo;s &lsquo;Alejandro&rsquo;, which sounds like Ace of Base. Gaga knows it sounds like Ace of Base. She wanted it to sound like Ace of Base. Lady Gaga is a critically acclaimed, Rilke-quoting, Tisch School of the Arts-educated performance artist who made a song that is meant to sound like one by Ace of Base. Hmmm. This song leaves me confused, emotionally orbiting the seventh circle of irony wearing a cloak made out of Muppet heads, listening to it on repeat over and over again because the bridge is just so damn good.
But the track from The Fame Monster currently giving my iPod the hardest pounding is &lsquo;Telephone&rsquo;. To return once again to the subject of Gaga and Beyonce&rsquo;s forthcoming music video, I believe YouTube commenter sambabyx3 put it best when he/she said &lsquo;I thought it was gonna&#65279; come out today. F*** this lol.&rsquo; sambabyx3, I feel your pain. But the song is great too: a dizzying tornado of grinding beats with a killer chorus, Gaga at her most RnB and Beyonce at her Sasha fiercest. A special mention goes to Monster. Less idiosyncratically Gaga but with her trademark belting chorus, Monsterrr-uh-rrr-uh-rrr-uh-rrr stands a good chance at being this year&rsquo;s Puh-puh-puh-pokerface, and perhaps even this year&rsquo;s Umber-ella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh.
Gaga saves the full force of her talents, lyrically and vocally, for &lsquo;Speechless&rsquo;, where she belts, roars and all but screams on a powerful rock ballad inspired by her father&rsquo;s battle with heart disease (&ldquo;Could we fix you if you broke?/And is your punch line just a joke?... I can&rsquo;t believe how you slurred at me with your half wired broken jaw/You popped my heart seams, on my bubble dreams, bubble dreams.&rdquo;) I much prefer this song how she performs it live with just a piano (most memorably with Elton John at the 2010 Grammys), but either way it serves as the album&rsquo;s best argument against Gaga&rsquo;s own claim that she makes soulless pop music. Just imagining Lady Gaga as an actual human being with actual human parents who she cares about so deeply casts a fresh light on the rest of album: imagining the heart beating behind the ice cool exterior, not just the educated mind and the impressive set of lungs. I mean, Gaga wasn&rsquo;t actually created in an evil genius pop scientist&rsquo;s lab, formed by mixing the DNA of Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry and Grace Jones with some magic dust swept up from the remnants at Studio 54. I don&rsquo;t think so, anyway.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4541/lady-gaga-the-fame-monster/</link>
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<title>Quasi  American Gong (Domino) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[American Gong, the eight studio album from the indie supergroup Quasi, is a refreshing return to their hazy punk roots, following their 2003 diversion into political rock with the mixed bag Hot Sh*t, and the disappointing experimental jazz style of When The Going Gets Tough in 2006.
American Gong sparkles with the kind of urgency and passion you might expect from a group made up of indie darlings Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, The Jicks) and Sam Coomes (Built to Spill). Throw in the incredible talent of bass player Joanna Bolme (Elliot Smith, The Jicks), and together they have come up with at first glance appears a straight up guitar layered rock album. But it soon becomes apparent that American Gong is one of the best records of their career, with the mind expanding 'Bye Bye Blackbird' as the highlight, a ferocious assault of the senses, containing the lush harmony &ldquo;bye bye blackbird flying to the sun, your money is all spent and your time is done....&rdquo; followed by crazy swirling guitars and Coomes mumbling something about LSD and DMT at the end.
What really sets this above a straight up punk rock album is the lyrical magic of Coomes, who has evolved over the years into a sort of punk rock Robert Lowell (celebrated American poet of the 1950's, author of Life Studies), expressing the pure simplicity of emotions with a whiskey soaked voice over howling guitars and a wonky piano. Here's a sample lyric from 'Black Dogs and Bubbles': &ldquo;Always fall in love with what makes you sad, chase the moon across the night across the stars wake up in the morning tired and cold, don't you know that she is already yours to love...but not to have and hold&rdquo; - cue noise drenching guitars, that already makes me ache to see this band live.
American Gong is a record with heavy influences particularly in art, music, and of course the highs and lows of love (let's not forget Weiss and Coomes are divorced, and Bolme last year married Gary Jarman from The Cribs). American Gong is an American rock album, that feels like a final throw of the dice after a hundred disappointments and fucked up relationships. It's got hints of Dinosaur Jr., a little bit of grunge DIY attitude, and a touch of Lee Randalo-esque vocal delivery. But most of it's a dynamic punk rock album, that bursts your soul with happiness. Coomes begs &ldquo;don't let them get you down, you've get to get control of your own sweet soul&rdquo; on 'Everything and Nothing at All', and this eternal optimism in a world of disappointment and dysfunctional love is what, ultimately, makes American Gong so rewarding and enjoyable.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4540/quasi-american-gong-domino/</link>
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<title>Girls  Morning Light (True Panther) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:27:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[One of 2009&rsquo;s most highly acclaimed new bands, Girls have barely strayed far from the buzz of music blogs and hype-mongers since &lsquo;Hellhole Ratrace&rsquo; first emerged in the summer of last year. Compared &ndash; not incorrectly &ndash; to the Beach Boys for their sunshine sensation, the Californians take the best of surf-rock and mix it with wholly un-obnoxious shoegaze to soul warming effect.
Taken from their much-lauded debut album, Album (how kooky), Girls&rsquo; first single of 2010 comes in the form of &lsquo;Morning Light&rsquo;. Christopher Owens&rsquo; droning vocals feel almost as though they shouldn&rsquo;t work sat atop the brawny guitars, but the combination is simultaneously melancholy and strikingly uplifting. The album is frequently cited as the result of much narcotic-absorption, but far more interesting is the fact that Owens&rsquo; music shows his progression away from his post-cult anger - yes, post-cult &ndash; questions about which will probably get very boring, very quickly, for the frontman.
But however miserably horrifying Owen&rsquo;s upbringing may have been, his determination to focus on the positive things in life emanates from &lsquo;Morning Light&rsquo;; intensely emotive, the pop-y haze deserves to be soaked up under glorious sunshine, preferably anywhere that isn&rsquo;t the miserable UK, please.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4539/girls-morning-light-true-panther/</link>
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<title>Eugene and the Lizards - Bugjuice / I Want Some Action (Domino) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:38:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Taken from their 10&rdquo; and download only EP Glue, the latest offering from the renowned London based eccentric Eugene McGuiness and his latest band is a rather catchy affair, mixing elements of surf pop with a classic garage rock style, sewn together with the kind of poppy melodies that used to get the readers of Smash Hits magazine twirling around their bedroom. 
&lsquo;Bugjuice&rsquo;, also the name of a 90's Disney reality show about bored kids in summer camp, has some mismatched lyrics about cemeteries, cappuccinos, morning markets, and dandelions that gently swirl through your head. I doubt there can be much else you need in a song, but just in case, the flip side &lsquo;I Want Action&rsquo; is pretty impressive too, offering a more classic sound, with a simple guitar hook and a storming tale of confused love.
Eugene and the Lizards are a band full of ideas and energy. On the basis of this offering, Eugene McGuiness, if he wants one, is on track for a long, and fascinating career.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4536/eugene-and-the-lizards-bugjuice-i-want-some-action-domino/</link>
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<title>Nebula  Camden Underworld, London  12/2/10 [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:46:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Nebula are a stoner rock band rolling in from the Palm Desert Scene of west-coast USA. Made up from fragments of crazy fuzzy stoner-punks Fu Manchu, this lot have been stalwarts on the stoner scene for many a year. Fronted by the brilliantly named Eddie Glass, we once again welcome this power-trio back to sweaty rock hub the Camden Underworld on a bitingly cold February night. There has been some jiggling around of the elements that make up said trio, the current line-up now features bass-plucker Tom Davies and Jimmy Sweet (seriously, who comes up with these names??) on drums.
The audience, who are hogging the &lsquo;late twenties to late thirties&rsquo; age bracket define perfectly the type of music consumer who want the cool, edgy appearance of rock music-fan whilst still having the ability to hold a solid job and a girlfriend. As Nebula creep onstage almost unnoticed and jump straight into their first song, the audience meander over out of curiosity and from that point on are held in Nebula&rsquo;s sticky web of fat riffs blended in an overdrive sauce, drizzled over a jazzy-but-tight set of rhythmic spare ribs.
The beauty of stoner rock is that essentially it is just a loosely regimented jam session, and one of Nebula&rsquo;s most endearing (and enduring) features, is that no matter who is in the band at any given time, the chemistry and understanding between all three members is both electric and mesmeric. Glass, sporting a dashing pencil moustache and a groovy purple waistcoat, seems lost in his own cosmic haze during songs. Audience interaction is minimal and efficient, but you get the sense that these guys are actually just happy to share the music they so obviously enjoy playing together with a room of like-minded people (who are similarly enthused just to be standing/swaying in front of the music-makers).


Nebula have a surprisingly impressive back-catalogue to choose from, and they woo the audience with a selection of older and newer material including their &lsquo;hit&rsquo; &lsquo;Giant&rsquo; which appeared on a Tony Hawks game back when Playstations were cool, and a recent re-working of &lsquo;Sonic Titan&rsquo; which is lapped up by the excited throng at the front of the stage.
Naturally, fans of the genre will also be familiar with other Palm Desert scenesters, the most prominent of which are Kyuss. And inevitably, comparisons will be made between the two. And fortunately for them, Kyuss are, for the time being at least, buried under 6 feet of sand dunes. While the core theory behind both bands are the same &mdash; playing bluesy, unaffected overdriven rock music on dusty old equipment to anyone who cares to listen &mdash; Nebula come across sounding more like a bastard child of Nirvana and Orange Goblin who&rsquo;s been doped with Ritalin. Which in no way is a bad thing!
No doubt, Nebula will continue to record, tour and jam with a laissez-faire attitude to it all, just content to be given the platform to rock out in public. No, they won't be playing Wembley Arena anytime soon, or anytime in the future. They know that, and so do their fans. And neither party gives a toss.And thatis their unique charm, one that shines with integrity and credibility, and brings the music scene a big fat, fuzzy injection of passion.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4534/nebula-camden-underworld-london-12210/</link>
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<title>Sade  Soldier of Love (Sony) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:35:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Before I rush into my review of Sade&rsquo;s Soldier of Love, there are two things the reader should probably be aware of: 1. Sade is a band, not just a beautiful Nigerian-born, Clacton-on-Sea-raised soul singer. I learnt this from Wikipedia. 2. I, and certainly just about every other child born in Britain in the mid-80s, was allegedly conceived to Sade&rsquo;s 1984 debut album Diamond Life, in particular the songs &lsquo;Smooth Operator&rsquo; and &lsquo;Your Love Is King&rsquo;. I learnt this from my mother, and one day my therapist or fellow rehab patients shall learn this from me.
I am telling you this now, because it is important that you understand - when I say this album is good, I really mean it. It&rsquo;s as good as an album has to be to distance itself from all the horrible mum-and-dad-sex connotations that force their way kicking and screaming into my mind whenever I hear Sade Adu&rsquo;s voice.
That unmistakeable voice has grown grittier and rougher since 2000&rsquo;s Lovers Rock, and here the startling contrast between Adu&rsquo;s rawer tone and the frequently polished, string-lead instrumentals serves to enhance stunning lyrics, ranging from the desperate, frenzied &ldquo;If you set me free, I will run&rdquo; on &lsquo;Morning Bird&rsquo;, to the more passive and desolate. In the haunting ballad &lsquo;Bring Me Home&rsquo;, when Adu sings &ldquo;My tears flow like a child&rsquo;s in need of love/I&rsquo;ve cried the tears/So let the tide take me, I won&rsquo;t fight&rdquo; while encircled by a crowd of swirling, menacing guitars, you can&rsquo;t help but believe her.
The sublime &lsquo;In Another Time&rsquo; is another high point, a bluesy lullaby whose soothing violins serve as a perfect counterpoint to the album&rsquo;s more fervent moments. The same cannot be said, sadly, for the languid, largely forgettable title track, which cannot be saved by its rousing drum beat, or the dull, plodding &lsquo;Babyfather&rsquo;.
Adu&rsquo;s voice is at its rawest on the album&rsquo;s most powerful song, &lsquo;Morning Bird&rsquo;, soaring above as a mournful, listless piano battles with frantic, pleading violins before slowly fading away. Sade Adu sings &ldquo;How could you?/You are the Morning Bird/that sang me into life&rdquo;.
Having become acquainted, and indeed rather fond, of this latest album by the, ahem, Morning Bird who, erm, sang me into life, I am finding myself increasingly eager to explore Sade&rsquo;s earlier efforts. Lovers Rock, mostly. Not Diamond Life. That shit&rsquo;s just traumatic.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4533/sade-soldier-of-love-sony/</link>
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<title>Adam Green  Concorde 2, Brighton  6/2/10 [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:45:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Oh dear Adam Green, do you ever play a gig sober? Who cares - Green is on top, albeit either drunk or totally over-excited form tonight. On the last date of his UK tour &ndash; a month long when combined with his Cribs support slot &ndash; a hyperactive Green plays a greatest hits set with a few tracks from new album Minor Love thrown in, plus some nonsensical stage banter in between.
Opening with the echoing vocals of &lsquo;Cigarette Burns Forever&rsquo; and the showtune-esque &lsquo;Gemstones&rsquo;, he&rsquo;s bounding around with a manic grin in a wide-eyed stupor which seems like either borderline mental exhaustion or the most fun in the world. After stopping to thank us all for coming out to see some &lsquo;traditional blues music&rsquo; and to tell us he&rsquo;s got a whole load of wafer thin chicken backstage, Green plays an aptly re-titled &lsquo;Brighton Beach&rsquo;, then croons through &lsquo;The Prince&rsquo;s Bed&rsquo; and &lsquo;Emily&rsquo;. All this is punctuated with stage diving, belly dancing and spasmodic flailing. He is a ramshackle, hilarious lunatic.
&lsquo;What Makes Him Act So Bad&rsquo; is dedicated to Brad Pitt and in proper Adam Green bad boy style he asks the crowd if there are any &lsquo;real homos&rsquo; out there that would like to suck his c*ck. Unfortunately, no one obliges despite the drummer pointing out that it&rsquo;s the gay capital of the UK - bad luck Adam. The highlight of the new album &lsquo;Goblin&rsquo; is a twanging limerick that induces some face slapping, bu the end of which Green can hardly sing for laughing.
&lsquo;Dance With Me&rsquo; is met with rapturous roars and a chorus of sing-along voices. Requests are taken, prompting a medley of &lsquo;No Legs&rsquo;, &lsquo;Crackhouse Blues&rsquo; and &lsquo;Baby&rsquo;s Gonna Die Tonight&rsquo;, which make for a delightfully chaotic end of set. Not satisfied with the lack of male attention, Green picks up a girl from the crowd that he&rsquo;d spotted earlier and carries her over his shoulder backstage. She&rsquo;s got a massive if apprehensive smile on her face as she waves goodbye. Green looks like a cheeky school kid who&rsquo;s just found a prime view into the girls&rsquo; changing room. He&rsquo;s bonkers, and a bit of a pervy mess... but brilliant.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4532/adam-green-concorde-2-brighton-6210/</link>
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<title>Gorillaz  Stylo (feat. Mos Def &amp; Bobby Womack) (Parlophone) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:11:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[It&rsquo;s been a long five years since Damon Albarn and the equally talented Jamie Hewlett released anything under the Gorillaz pseudonym - an understandable hiatus seeing as Sir Blur was busy with other bands, many collaborations and a Chinese monkey opera. Their much-hyped third album Plastic Beach is due out next month &ndash; and &lsquo;Stylo&rsquo; is here to whet the appetite.
The sound is synthy and bass-heavy, with a powerful rhythmic insistence that stays with you despite the absence of a conventional chorus. Bobby Womack&rsquo;s vocals bring the whole thing to a quietly dramatic crescendo signed off perfectly by Mos Def&rsquo;s last few bars of fuzzy broadcast.
As ever, the featured pair are the first of many expected contributors on the new Gorillaz collection, and perfectly tease us with the potential of the full release. We suspect the best is yet to come from Plastic Beach but our interest is most certainly pricked &ndash; roll on March.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4529/gorillaz-stylo-feat-mos-def-bobby-womack-parlophone/</link>
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<title>You Me At Six - Relentless Garage, London  8/2/10 [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:20:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[According to the title of the HMV festival of which this gig is a part, You Me At Six are going to be the Next Big Thing. And His Master&rsquo;s Voice aren&rsquo;t the only ones to have taken notice of this Surrey five piece of late. Despite only having been around since 2007, YMAS have certainly been busy in their short time as a band &ndash; highlights include signing to Virgin Records, a nomination for Best British Newcomers at last year&rsquo;s Kerrang! Awards, and most recently seeing their second LP Hold Me Down reach the dizzy heights of number 5 in the UK album charts. Not too shabby.
Tonight they play to a very excited Garage crowd, their screams and whoops echoing around the room as the band launch headlong in to &lsquo;Safe To Hate Her&rsquo;, a heartfelt pop punk number that has all the required dimensions. As the room gets warmer and everyone pushes to the front, lead singer Josh Franceschi, takes off his jacket and cracks on with the next song. 'The Truth Is A Terrible Thing' does indeed sound quite similar to its predecessor, but again it comes as a perfectly formed pop punk package. 
The aforementioned Josh is an excellent frontman, with real presence and a way with the crowd, he is unencumbered by a musical instrument and so throws all his passion into getting the audience on side. When he tells them it&rsquo;s time for a circle pit, the music strikes me as perhaps not heavy enough to warrant one of those all out crazy spheres, but YMAS prove me wrong, putting all they&rsquo;ve got into a short but sweet thunderous climax to the track.
The effortless upbeat hits keep on coming, 'Trophy Eyes' and 'Save It for the Bedroom', receive rapturous reactions, and you can even see a smile on the face of guitarist Chris Miller as his mouth occasionally becomes visible from behind the wall of thrashing long hair. During 'If I Were In Your Shoes', the band insist upon &ldquo;complete and utter carnage&rdquo; - the audience again briefly oblige, but this upbeat pop punk does not seem to engender the same desire to create vicious circle pits. A simple mosh will suffice.
Lead singer Josh decides to introduce the next song with a bit of contextual information. 'The Consequence' was written after a conversation with his mum about the music industry. It&rsquo;s tempestuous and slightly angry, the bass screams through the track with a frantic pace and the drums claw away as Josh imparts on us his slightly rankled views. The set ends with current single 'Underdog', like the rest of their canon, a tightly wound structure of emo pop punk.
You Me At Six have seemingly perfected the American style of emo/pop punk. Evident influences such as Elliott Minor and Fightstar shine through, but what makes them even better is Josh&rsquo;s voice - his powerful tones take control over each track. HMV&rsquo;s Next Big Thing tag might be a daunting one, but it&rsquo;s one YMAS are entitled to.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4527/you-me-at-six-relentless-garage-london-8210/</link>
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<title>Various  Pop Ambient 2010 (Kompakt) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:17:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[This series, a comedown partner to the ever excellent Total compilations, has been curated by label co-founder Wolfgang Voigt (aka GAS) for ten years now. This anniversary edition brings together familiar names, highlighting its past but also pushing in new directions.
It opens with Marsen Jules&rsquo; &lsquo;The Sound Of One Lip Kissing&rsquo;, a dramatic industrial clipped beat that immediately subverts expectations by forcing the chill out. Each tenured pucker reverberates around the room puncturing your being with a mournful intangible sadness which only really exists in this form. The sense of drama is sublime and is the type of track that you could sit with on repeat for hours at a time.
Once you get over it though, the acoustic daubing of Brock Van Way/Bvdub&rsquo;s first contribution to this edition &lsquo;Lest You Forget&rsquo; is perhaps more predictable, yet lays out a palette of choral vocals that perfectly sets you up for his closing track on the compilation &lsquo;Will You Know Where to Find Me&rsquo; a stunning self reflexive epic worthy of (especially if combined with the other track) its own release and worth buying for alone; a celebratory and delightfully complex way to lose yourself in sound.
Back to the running order and Triola samples a busy shopping area overdubbed with his blissed-out flute-loops, the music of a sole entity lost with headphones on as all rush about around them, and perhaps a somewhat literal suggestion of how best to enjoy it.
Wolfgang Voigt himself makes a rare appearance and will surely excite the hardcore beat-heads. A consistent hairdryer drone shrieks in the distant whilst light Pajo-esque guitar and accordion tones flitter across your eyes showering with light refracting droplets.
Andrew Thomas brings a tape decay and bass thrumb that reveal his influences, especially sandwiched between Voigt and The Orb; the most recognisable and commercial name on this records, and early patrons to the series. Their busier sound with a noticeable and (comparatively) together bass groove and 60s film vocal sample is a predictable hark back which never really takes off.
The dub-plate theme is continued with a toned down track from Mikkel Metal who&rsquo;s chirping guitar drops remind of the influence of this scene in modern math-rock, but lead the way forward with a hypnotic piano line and nearly spoken aural clicks.
DJ Koze the opener and standout track of the recent Total 10 repeats the trick of best in show here with a song so entirely different but obviously the work of this new auteur. On the Total comp he provided &lsquo;40 Love&rsquo;, a track whose propulsive beat was sampled from a Tennis match and explored all of the possibilities of rhythmic potentials in that sound. Here on the bewitching &lsquo;Bodenweich&rsquo; he proves he has the skill to perform this exercise with melody. A heavy bass gives into a piano and ghost cry manipulated melody which is one of the greatest moments of beauty ever associated to the label. Essential.
The link to Total 10 is re-iterated with the contribution of label co-owner J&uuml;rgen Paape whose &lsquo;846M&rsquo; is a ambient take on his own &lsquo;Ofterschwang&rsquo; which graced that earlier release, taking an oompah- heavy two step, at times crassly irritating, TUNE and twisting it on its head entirely to leave the sound of a lone brass player lost from the pack whose throat has been slit; spraying blood across the landscape while his windpipes are teased into sound by the wind. This form of hare kare on one&rsquo;s own song shows not only a welcome humility, but also demonstrates that with the right frame of mind, a poetic beauty can be wrung from any atrocity.
Dettinger the label&rsquo;s first full length artist contributes &lsquo;Therefore&rsquo; whose simplistic looping must have once set a president and lead to the sense of a label sound but after the sheet beauty of J&uuml;rgen Paape feels tiresome and repetitive.
Thomas Fehlmann restores the peace with perhaps the most Ambient (in the Eno sense of the word) song on the album In the Wind which minimal drops, rumbles and reversed cymbals lead you to Popnoname&rsquo;s &lsquo;Deutz Air&rsquo; a sentimental feeling of a song that mixes a familiar flourish of sound with swathes of drone before passing out in bliss to the aforementioned &lsquo;Will You Know Where to Find Me&rsquo; by Brok Van Wey/Bvdub which is only worth mentioning one more time as is utterly, utterly essential.
If the critical nonchalance usually afforded to these compilations is largely based on their consistency and regularity continues for another ten years, it would be a shame; for there are worse sins for a label than being consistently brilliant.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4524/various-pop-ambient-2010-kompakt/</link>
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<title>Four Tet &amp; Nathan Fake  Tufnell Park Dome, London  12/2/10 [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:15:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[A poorly Joy Orbison is sadly absent tonight, replaced by Norfolk&rsquo;s answer to progressive techno, Nathan Fake. After skirting around the edges of electronic transcendence for a few years and having released a couple of albums and 7&rsquo;&rsquo;s with label Border Community, Fake is about to take on an official supporting role with Four Tet in North America from mid February. He lifts the spirits of an Orbison-withdrawn crowd with the quivering-synths and slightly unruly rhythms of his 2009 LP Hard Islands warming up a particularly open-minded room on a freezing Friday night.
Taking centre stage next (literally on a platform in the middle of the floor), Four Tet goes all out for his final London headliner this winter. Early on the crowd is nodding like the Churchill Dog to the building genius of &lsquo;Love Cry&rsquo;, accompanied by silhouetted dancers doing the neon hula-hoop at the back of the room. Pushing further into the dense crowd we can really appreciate the visual set-up. Moody lights and Kieran being surrounded by hanging blue spheres gives the impression he&rsquo;s working within an orbit all of his own.
Regular cheers of recognition rise up and after about half an hour even the most reserved and sober are dancing. We even think we spot Julian Barratt of Mighty Boosh fame in the crowd, but don&rsquo;t quote us on that!
The experimental and less accessible side of Four Tet&rsquo;s folktronica seems to deflate a few less assiduous revellers from time to time but ultimately Kieran&rsquo;s music is for the electronic connoisseurs and will apologise to no one. You get what you&rsquo;re given and if you&rsquo;re willing to recognise his genius, you will be rewarded.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4523/four-tet-nathan-fake-tufnell-park-dome-london-12210/</link>
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<title>Archie Bronson Outfit  Sharks Tooth (Domino) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:53:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Archie Bronson Outfit return with a new album, Coconut, in March 2010 and its first single &lsquo;Shark&rsquo;s Tooth&rsquo; is a mega-explosive ready-steady-go gift to us all. Just by listening to this track one can figure out the nature of the entire parent work: psychedelic, visceral, aggressive and addictive.
Initial rhythmic pouncing and distorted guitars with a metallic taste set the pace to a military march with a smith&rsquo;s hammer banging on iron as a base and a filler of frenetic strobe lights of epileptic sound. Kinda.
But then... then there&rsquo;s the galloping of additional guitars in-between, like we&rsquo;re listening to a reinvented 21st Century spaghetti western soundtrack. Sam Windett&rsquo;s vocals keep steady, deep and harsh in pressure despite the gradual moulding of the riffs into expanding fields of deformity. &lsquo;Shark&rsquo;s Tooth&rsquo; bites instantaneously, grips with force and doesn&rsquo;t let go. Ouch.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4521/archie-bronson-outfit-sharks-tooth-domino/</link>
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<title>Gil Scott Heron  Im New Here (XL) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:57:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Pieces of A Man, Gil&rsquo;s 1971 sophomore album, should be an essential part of anyone who really cares about music&rsquo;s life. Crystallising his personally political street-rhymes with a soulful, jazz tinged production and gumption that commands attention through the ages; testified by those who hold him up as the (god)father of modern rap and certainly showing a lineage through Public Enemy to Kanye West who turned on a new generation to Gil through sampling perhaps his greatest song &lsquo;Home Is Where The Hatred Is&rsquo;. This is a path that producer and svengali Richard Russell is at pains to draw through completing the circle by sampling Kanye&rsquo;s own &lsquo;Flashing Lights&rsquo; on both the opening (and closing) track(s) of this new album.
However, like with Johnny Cash before him, there is a desire to whitewash and sanctify the artist towards latter stage of his career. This is a man made up of many faults. Passing on an anti-drugs and pro-black message through the ages to Public Enemy and Mos Def was a clear positive, but also in this transference was a hefty dollop of homophobia from debut album&rsquo;s &lsquo;The Subject Was Faggots&rsquo;. Equally, from criticising their destruction of potentially great young black men, he completed his own circle by succumbing to drug abuse and the lengthy prison stays that came with them.
Like Rick Rubin before him, label head and producer Richard Russell has offered a hand to a man who testifies on this new album that &ldquo;if I hadn&rsquo;t been as eccentric, as obnoxious, as arrogant, as aggressive, as disrespectful, as selfish, I wouldn&rsquo;t be me.&rdquo; This persistent (and largely justified) un-repentance is tempered, as on his best records, with personal anecdotes that reaffirm the family line in a similar fashion to Jay Z&rsquo;s The Black Album opening with &lsquo;On Coming From a Broken Home&rsquo;, in which he harks back to his earliest years. At his best when constructing these yarns, weaving and twisting lyrics through a refined metre and sense of rhythm that clarifies exactly why he is a genius. However, largely this is present on the stunning aforementioned opener, &lsquo;Your Soul and Mine&rsquo; and &lsquo;New York Is Killing Me&rsquo; &ndash; augmenting these tales with dubstep tinged blues; clicks and clunks provided by Russell turning it into something uniquely brilliant and refreshing.
However, as on those famed American Recordings, the minimal new (and up there with his best) material is augmented with multiple cover versions. The three most solid &ldquo;songs&rdquo; on the album are all covers, notably the title track &lsquo;I&rsquo;m New Here&rsquo;, taken from Smog&rsquo;s underloved A River Ain&rsquo;t Too Much To Love album and a throat tearing take on Robert Johnson&rsquo;s &lsquo;Me and The Devil&rsquo;. Both are sublime choices &ndash; again positioning both historically within the pantheon of great black artists on the latter and with a modern day egotist on the former, and both are conveyed theatrically and with style by Gil.
With a few nuggets of wisdom in the brief skits that pepper the record, you&rsquo;re left with a sense of epitaph to this album &ndash; both expanding on his legend and, as with Edison&rsquo;s original intentions for recorded sound, leaving messages from the past for future generations to learn from, in this case for better and worse, from all of the compounds that make up the pieces of this unique man.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4520/gil-scott-heron-im-new-here-xl/</link>
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<title>The Big Pink  Velvet (4AD) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:48:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[When knowing I&rsquo;m about to hear a Big Pink song, I&rsquo;m inclined to expect brilliance. But let&rsquo;s start with the details.  &lsquo;Velvet&rsquo; might be full of digital noise, but it&rsquo;s also so&hellip; velvety - it has a creamy, soulful quality, like swells of foam crashing onto white-sanded beaches. Robbie Furze&rsquo;s voice is crystalline amongst clouds of intense layers of keyboards. His dark and depressive undertone changes character during the bridge, in which its timbre is lighter and more dazzling, its force elongated and propelled into a blistering but controlled climax.
But, hang on, there is side B, a cover version (get this!) of Otis Redding&rsquo;s &lsquo;These Arms of Mine&rsquo;. Kudos to them for daring to re-imagine a song such as this, and for the fact that the result is a spellbinding meditative chant, an interlude of vocals dancing in solitude over powerful delayed guitars. Controlled intensity, that seems to be The Big Pink&rsquo;s motto.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4519/the-big-pink-velvet-4ad/</link>
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<title>Jamie T  02 Academy Brixton, London  5/2/10 [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:43:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Granted, James &ldquo;Jamie T&rdquo; Treays&rsquo; second album Kings &amp; Queens, a breathless, quintessentially London-rooted patchwork of rock, rap, dub and reggae - is significantly better than his debut Panic Prevention.But it&rsquo;s still something of a shock to find this erstwhile Wimbledon indie urchin's pulling power now extends to two sold out nights at Brixton&rsquo;s venerable Academy.
Ably supported by his backing band The Pacemakers, the scrawny Treays is an impish, irrepressible Artful Dodger of a frontman, pirouetting across the stage and commandeering a number of instruments, although he&rsquo;s not above confessing to some nerves at performing in this &ldquo;luverly venue.&rdquo;
It's a bit of a shame that certainmoments fromthe excellent Kings &amp; Queens don't quite translate to the sizeable venues he's now capable of filling: rickety ballad &lsquo;Emily&rsquo;s Heart&rsquo;, one of that record&rsquo;s finest moments, is sadly drowned out by a predictablyboisterous Friday night crowd.
Still, the rowdier material couldn't be better suited to theevening.Ever the opportunist, the mischievous Jamie uses the initial fluffed opening of &lsquo;Sheila&rsquo; to his advantage (&ldquo;you better sing a bit f***ing louder this time!") whilst a raucous &lsquo;Earth, Wind &amp; Fire&rsquo; and the inevitable curtain-call carnage of &lsquo;Sticks &amp; Stones&rsquo;cap a splendid night for the local boy-done-way-better-than-expected.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4518/jamie-t-02-academy-brixton-london-5210/</link>
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<title>Los Campesinos!  Romance Is Boring (Wichita) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:39:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Wow &ndash; my first utterance after hitting the play button. Romance is Boring has the &lsquo;w&rsquo; factor, no doubt. Brutally honest in lyrics and equally aggressive musically, Los Campesinos! are a band definitely not afraid of much. You can tell by their experimentation with additional instruments (strings, brass) never used in previous recordings.
This explosion of distortion, riotous and crashing indie punk comes in the form of 15 extensive tracks with guest appearances by Jamie Stewart (Xiu, Xiu), Zac Pennington (Parenthetical Girls) and Jherek Bischoff (Dead Science).
In line with Art Brut or The Buzzcocks&rsquo; peculiar approach to punk, their music is dusty, harsh and hurtful. They are the types that look at you right in the eye when they talk about death, decay of the human body, sex, love, mental health issues &ndash; uncomfortable topics, open wounds, healing scars.
To top it up, they wrap it in frenetic spasms of delicately controlled musical anger. Romance Is Boring regurgitates, growls and creates an ordered chaos, a pre-meditated punch, a rehearsed kick to the gut. Yet LC!s tightness on record is worthy of remark, and it&rsquo;s hard not to look forward to their tour and hope for an equally frenzied performance. Romance Is Boring &ndash; again, wow.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4516/los-campesinos-romance-is-boring-wichita/</link>
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<title>Race Horses  Goodbye Falkenburg (Fantastic Plastic) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[When opening the post as a reviewer, with a mixture of heavy duty and delight, it is quite uncommon to find a CD that strikes you as a curious one right off the bat - in terms of packaging first and musical content next. This was the case of Race Horses, a Welsh band presenting their debut album Goodbye Falkenburg. 
On the surface, they are a fresh but ragged around the edges breed upstarts, with strong musical influences taken from both post- and glam-rock, tropicalia and psychedelic pop from the likes of The Beatles, Suicide and The Beach Boys. Their unique sense of humour in the treatment of vocals and the chaotic background of recorded noises taken from parties, nature and animals sets them at least slightly apart from their contemporaries. Yet it is a whole list of other extras added into the songs that make this album an interesting one to listen to once more.
Firstly, their lyrics are truly adventurous, touching topics as varied and awkwardly random as food, mental illness, nautical themes and derailed love (&lsquo;Man in My Mind&rsquo;, that one). Secondly, the band&rsquo;s frank bravery to sing in Welsh in a few songs is to be commended, confident as they are that their music will surpass any linguistic barriers. And third is the fact that each song has been filled with the most surprising natural field sounds you could ever imagine, taken from zoos (&lsquo;Discopig&rsquo;) to chapels to eco-villages, all combined with zig-zagging changes of pace, style and instrumentation (&lsquo;Cacen Mamgu&rsquo; and &lsquo;Intergalactiv Space Rebellion&rsquo;).
The result is cheeky, ambitious and manic &ndash; and absolutely nothing to do with the bird-based theme of the packaging that caught my eye.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4514/race-horses-goodbye-falkenburg-fantastic-plastic/</link>
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<title>Owen Pallett  Heartland (Domino) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:20:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[I am confronted with the dilemma of having to write a second review of this album, or give the task to somebody else. It&rsquo;s a dilemma, I shall say, that is easily and quickly solvable - I could write as many reviews of this piece of art as notes are in the songs included in this CD. And believe you me, there are many.
Owen Pallett&rsquo;s third album Heartland is a detailed, complex, difficult (though catchy!) and sophisticated work, built, I sense, as an orchestral book of fairy tales from preface to end (or shall we say here, the perfectly exquisite Requiem that is &lsquo;What Do You Think Will Happen Now?&rsquo;). It&rsquo;s closely knitted in moods and sonic landscapes: a story unfolds in shapes of mystery, suspense, drama, playfulness, teasing, depth, sobriety and caprice. Heartland is clearly Owen&rsquo;s secret hiding place and it is, by far, the album that mostly exudes his talented and rebellious persona.
His classical upbringing and experimentation with pop are fused here without restraint. Sometimes sad, sometimes euphoric, sometimes angelical, sometimes sexy, Owen&rsquo;s land is a palette of knightly virtues and royal hymns, jousting games, galloping scenarios and religious grandeur. From &lsquo;Keep The Dog Quiet&rsquo; to &lsquo;E is for Estrangeland&rsquo; to Lewis Takes Action&rsquo; and &lsquo;Oh Heartland, Up Yours&rsquo;, there is not one single song with an ounce of imperfection. As perfect as one&rsquo;s own Heartland can be, that is.
Watch Owen performing as Final Fantasy on Rockfeedback TV below:


//]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4511/owen-pallett-heartland-domino/</link>
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<title>Thom Stone  Hearts &amp; Bones (Self Released) [Recommendation]</title>
<pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:14:00 GMT</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[On paper, Thom Stone seems to have everything a singer/songwriter needs to get started. Featured on In the City&rsquo;s Best of Unsigned 2006 (along with Gallows and Friendly Fires) and with a sublime duet with Laura Marling under his belt it seems strange that he hasn&rsquo;t made as much of an impact as some of his contemporaries. Double EP Hearts and Bones only serves to further that mystery.
There are tracks on this record that have moments of real beauty. Stone&rsquo;s unique voice brings true emotion to some of the lyrics, straining at the refrain of opener &lsquo;You Can Do What You Like&rsquo; with a resigned quality that makes an instant connection with the listener. At many points he is armed only with a guitar for backing, the lo-fi production allowing the songs and his voice to stand alone, make their own case for attention instead of being surrounded with background ambience.
When he does stray into bigger songs it&rsquo;s sometimes messy; he has a habit of trying to cram a lot of words into not enough music, but everything still has a certain charm to it. &lsquo;Baby Come Back&rsquo; for example, one of the more upbeat moments on the EP, possesses a wonderful alt-country feel.
The second half of Hearts and Bones takes on a decidedly more morose feel. &lsquo;Clementine&rsquo; is a sad tale detailing drinking fathers and a struggle to make ends meet. Along with &lsquo;I Will Always Leave You&rsquo; it makes for a fairly depressing second half (sample lyric &ldquo;One day I will die/And everyone will say you&rsquo;re better off this way&rdquo;). However, Stone manages to contrast the melancholic subject matter with almost cheerful melodies, with a lovely blend of harmonicas and guitars.
While the EP has an almost charming home-made feel to it (there are many instances of Stone and his mates chatting and laughing) it feels that if there was a bit more polish on the record it could lift this very talented singer from his relative obscurity. He has all the talent and drive to be a success &ndash; and Hearts &amp; Bones showcases the early days of his song-writing skills beautifully.]]></description>
<link>http://www.rockfeedback.com/review/4509/thom-stone-hearts-bones-self-released/</link>
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