Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications
“I met her in the museum of paleontology and I make no bones about it…”
What is there not to like about Jarvis Cocker? Seriously. I do think he’s a very acquired taste though, like brie, certain red wines and French cinema of the 1960s so maybe this won’t be for you. The songs are moody in places, beautifully wordy in others, witty quite a lot of the time and with nothing that will obviously appeal to radio unlike that 15 seconds of fame Pulp had with Disco 2000 and Common People.
Excellent. Will definitely burn it to my iTouch.
Daniel Merriweather - Love & War
The latest in one of the longest lines of product in recorded music - white guys who try to sound black. Problem is, it’s just that - product.
It’s very well produced by Mark Ronson but that fails to cover up a lot of the inadequacies. Adele makes an appearance on this and this comes from the same musical root as she; will sell, will play on MTV, not much else of substance or memorable about it. It’s bland, well packaged mush for the masses but lots of other people do it so, so much better.
Wallis Bird - New Boots
Hands up - I like Wallis.
I had her in on the show after the first album and really was impressed with what she did and was proud to present her with the 2FM Hope For 2009 award at the Meteor earlier this year. This album represents a step up from the nice singer/songwriter territory of last time and into something slightly more adventurous. It’s lyrical, melodic and catchy without ever being twee, soars in spots and has adventurous touches of production here and there. Even if it does veer occasionally close to Indigo Girls territory she keeps it just on the Erin McKeon side of the line. A definite keeper.
The Duckworth Lewis Method - The Duckworth Lewis Method
Neil Hannon, The divine Divine Comedy and Thomas Walsh, the one man ELO from Pugwash (two Irishmen, dare I point out) make an album themed around English cricket. This should not work for a dozen reasons but the two of them are so bloody talented all it does is come across as charming, dotty and totally hummable. Cads.
Yes, it’s patchy as any collaboration of this nature always is, yes it sounds in places like a few different albums sewn together in the middle and yes it will divide people who hear it into love/hate but that’s no bad thing. This is obviously a labour of love for the two of them, yet one that’s actually pulled off and there are so few of those sort of things in mainstream music these days. Some people won’t be able to get beyond the obvious pretentiousness of the idea, it’s their loss.
And Thomas mentions Courtown. Good enough for me.
Madness - The Liberty Of Norton Folgate
Any album that starts with track 1 marked “overture” better be the greatest one in the history of recorded music or that’s going to look silly. It’s not. The first thing. It’s the same forgettable tosh they’ve been putting out since they were angry and creative young men who made really good pop music in the early 80s. Sorry lads.
