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McFly - Greatest Hits
McFly were originally notably only because they were so obviously a boyband that they made Busted look like Slayer. Their music may have slightly less offensive than the cod-Green Day schtick of their mentors in pop-music-with-guitars, but that didn't make them any more palatable. They were the Westlife to Busted's Boyzone, and similarly, it wasn't until the older band split up that the young ones truly came to the fore and picked up all of their fans. The problem they face now, probably acknowledged by the arrival of this greatest hits album, is the same that all boybands face after a few years; their fans are growing up. McFly have tried to grow with them, adding some jokey raunchiness to their act by taking their clothes off at any given opportunity and adding a pun about anal sex ('when I fell in love with Uranus'...) into single Star Girl. Whether this will help them or not remains to be seen, as both they and Busted have acted as the training bras of rock music, providing a safe alternative before the fans grow into slightly more advanced bands like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. What McFly have that Busted didn't quite, is that their songs are actually quite a bit better and certainly more musically impressive, though that isn't particularly difficult. From the Beatles-inspired Five Colours In Her Hair to some of the stuff co-written by Jason Perry from A on their last album, McFly do have some tunes and this album showcases some of the best of them, but of course, being a boyband, they also have some ballads that make you want to rip your brain out of your head just so that you'll never have to listen to them again. And the less said about their emasculating cover of Don't Stop Me Now by Queen the better. It's often been said that the greatest hits album is the first nail in the coffin of a pop group, but with Sugababes proving that wrong with the success of their recent album and Girls Aloud set to release a new one soon, that's not neccessarily always the case, and McFly will certainly hope so. Is it worth buying though? Well, there's some new stuff on it and some kind of 'fan edition' (aren't all albums meant to be for the fans?), so no doubt it'll sell loads of copies, but it's not likely to change anyone's minds about them either.
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Blake - Blake
You know what we really need? Another Il Divo! How awesome would that be! Get a bunch of good-looking opera singers together, give them a mixture of pop songs and classical material, plus some stuff from films, and you've got the perfect recipe for... well, Il Divo. Blake are the latest band to try this approach and it briefly looked like this album was going to be released at the perfect time. You see, one of the tracks they have included on here is Swing Low, and that would have been very appropriate if England had won the Rugby World Cup. But they didn't, so never mind. Still, they did get to appear on Breakfast singing it before the rugby bubble burst for another four years, so at least it got them some publicity. The first thing you have to say about Blake is that they do have very nice voices, as you'd expect, and they blend well together. However, you need more than that to make a decent album, and as with so many of these types of release, it becomes an attempt to appeal to the largest audience possible, losing sight of what kind of album it could have been. It works well at times, with very stirring versions of tunes from Gladiator, 1492 and Once Upon A Time In America, and if they had stuck to this route, Blake could have come up with a really enjoyable record. Instead, they of course, have to spoil it by being everything to everyone and throwing in popular music songs, not many of which actually work in this context, with Moon River and Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah both becoming a bit of a dirge. God Only Knows is much better, but only when heard on its own, because the production so obviously tries to copy the original, and there's no real attempt to blend it into the rest of the album. This constant shifting in tone and purpose leaves Blake sounding like classical karoake, and while there are lots of good moments on their debut album, it just doesn't work as a whole.
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Angels And Airwaves - I-Empire
When a band breaks up, it's always interesting to see what direction each member goes in as it gives you a glimpse into the differing creative impulses that possibly led to the band's split. With Busted, it could hardly be more clear if it was written in big letters on their old official website, as Charlie went off to do Fightstar, the gimpy one (James something or other) returned with Busted clones Son Of Dork and Matt tried to become a bona fide pop star. The distinction with former members of Blink-182 isn't quite as clear-cut as that, but as Tom DeLonge returns with a second Angels & Airwaves album, when compared to Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker's +44, you can still see the reason they aren't making music together as a trio anymore. While +44 play a slight variation on Blink's punk-pop, AVA (that's short for Angels & Airwaves, but quite why we aren't sure) focus on the more melodic and commercial stadium rock anthems of U2. Indeed, they are very fond of starting songs (Love Like Rockets being just one example) with the U2 trademark guitar opening before bursting into shimmery songs that are full of production! and drums! and soaring vocals! and other big epic things! This was AVA's formula for their rest album and it worked well enough, though without the same kind of inspiration that made Green Day's shift in this direction so successful. DeLonge promised that I-Empire would be a bit more stripped-down than We Don't Need To Whisper (an appropriate album title if ever there was one), saying: "I-Empire is the second half of our first album. It reflects an idea that the world is yours for the taking, and all that exists, exists inside you. It can be something as trivial as a personal struggle, or as grand as the inescapable idea of world peace." Indeed. The problem with it though is that it is very difficult to get the message from an album as glossy and epic as this, mainly because so many of the songs sound so flipping similar. DeLonge's vocals all seem to have the same slightly unwordly shimmer to them and he sings all of the songs with an affected voice that is just a bit lower pitched than it was in Blink-182. This is most notable on Secret Crowds, a song that has almost exactly the same chorus as Always, from Blink's self-titled album, when DeLonge seemed to taking them away from their punk roots, presumably leading to the split. The problem now is that while I-Empire is a very glossy-sounding album, it's all too similar, without Hoppus bringing some snotty punk in to shake things up a bit, just as +44 could do with a bit more melody. Maybe that's an overly-simplified view of things, but DeLonge needs to mix things up a bit next time out...
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Eddie Vedder - Into The Wild
Sean Penn's new film Into The Wild tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, who grew up in a wealthy suburb of Washington DC, and died when he was 24 in a wilderness area of the state of Alaska having literally gone 'into the wild' giving away his savings, cutting off communication with his family and travelling. If that doesn't sound exactly like a barrel of laughs, then you won't be surprised to find that Penn has recruited Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder to record the soundtrack to the film. With titles like Setting Forth, Far Behind and End Of The Road, it's pretty easy to see the themes of the film have been brought into the music by Vedder for what is essentially his first solo album. With long-time Pearl Jam associate Adam Kasper helping out with the production, it's no surprise that it doesn't stretch too far from the kind of music we would normally hear Vedder singing, with the real difference being that he's written all of it, apart from a couple of covers, whereas his band spread the writing out between them. There's also the fact that they are songs written for a film, which of course does influence the kind of music in them, so Into The Wild can't be taken to be a 'true' solo album. That said, it's still a pretty good collection of very folky material, with only a couple of louder tracks, most notably the excellent single Hard Sun, but the music fits the wilderness themes of the film very well. All things considered, Into The Wild falls somewhere between a soundtrack and a proper album, and is neither of those entirely convincingly, but Vedder's vocals make it worthwhile and Pearl Jam fans will be delighted with it.
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The Wombats - A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation
Tales Of Girls, Boys And Marsupials is one of the least conventional opening tracks to any indie albums we've ever heard. Performed as if these Liverpudlians were a barbershop quartet, it has no instruments, just their voices and handclaps and it's clearly meant to be funny, but gets tiresome after just one listen. Most importantly, it doesn't entirely fit the rest of the album, which isn't called Guide To Love, Loss And Desperation for nothing. 'Here's another song about a gender I'll never understand', Matthew Murphy sings in first real track and early single Kill The Director. He goes on to sing 'this is no Bridget Jones', but as the album goes on, it almost sounds like entries from the diary of a lovelorn male version of Bridget, just without the happy ending and all the snow. The Wombats have released some alright singles so far and some that weren't great, but when they are all put together on their debut album, it all gets a little heavygoing. Even the more lyrically upbeat tracks like Moving To New York and Let's Dance To Joy Division have lyrics that complain about 'problems' and you start to want to slap The Wombats round their collective faces and tell them to cheer up a bit. The irony is that their music isn't particularly dour or depressing, but nor is it particularly impressive either, with some songs like School Uniforms almost tooth-achingly irritating, while just the title of Patricia The Stripper screams 'indie schmindie', and the song itself isn't much better. The real problem with The Wombats is that they can't quite seem to decide whether they want to be quite a quirky bunch of Scouse rascals or just complain about girls, and their debut album falls into a hole somewhere in between. It's a shame because a chink of light shines through occasionally and shows you how much fun they could be, but you could say that about a lot of mediocre bands.
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David Jordan - Set The Mood
"If you're wondering where all the British pop superstars disappeared to, your answer may come in the shape of David Jordan. At only 21 this singer, songwriter and natural, effervescent live performer is throwing contemporary British pop in exciting new directions with searing rock guitars, throbbing party rhythms, blissful melodies and charismatically executed nods to his own childhood idols." That's what his PR blurb says about David Jordan, and in the words of this album's opening track, it's almost On The Money. At first, Set The Mood sounds like it could be the most exciting album by a British pop singer in a long time, with plenty of great tunes, catchy choruses and nice production by Trevor Horn. It's all very 80s, but that's not particularly bad thing when you are hearing influences from Michael Jackson and Prince at their prime. Recent single Place In My Heart is the album's high water mark, infectiously funky with great memorable flourishes and nice falsetto vocals from Jordan making it one of the year's best pop songs. The lolloping gospel and twangy beats of Sun Goes Down make it another really good tune, while the slick groove of the title track may get a little repetitive, but still makes for four great songs at the start of what is shaping up to be an impressive debut album. But then it all gets a bit insipid and uninspired. There's some good tunes in the rest of Set The Mood, but there's also some hideously bland fare like Sweet Prince and If I'm In Love. David Jordan has got talent and potential, but this is too patchy to really herald the arrival of a new pop superstar.
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Multi
Purpose Chemical
- ...4 More
Ways To Fight
When
is a Liverpool
band not a
Liverpool
band? When
none of them
come from
Liverpool
of course.
Multi Purpose
Chemical might
be based in
Merseyside,
but with band
members from
'down south',
Stockport,
Glasgow and
California,
they certainly
don't fit
in with the
likes of The
Coral or The
Zutons. Not
least because
they play
very heavy
metal rock
music. They
describe their
music as 'a
helicopter
crashing into
a wind chime
factory',
which isn't
far off really,
and their
influences
are definitely
in the System
Of A Down
mould rather
than The Beatles.
Rage Against
The Machine
and Faith
No More at
their heaviest
have also
clearly inspired
MPC and tracks
like Myth
Of I are testament
to that, though
they also
have their
quirkier Queens
Of The Stone
Age moments
like the intro
to Cult, which
was their
debut EP way
back in 2005
and was produced
by Ace from
Skunk Anansie
(as is this
album). It
is refreshing
to hear tracks
like Quick
Fix and its
indictments
of the 'I
want it all
and I want
it now' ethos
of modern
life ("when
will they
pimp my ride?"),
and there's
no doubt that
MPC are an
intelligent
band with
plenty to
say for themselves,
but ...And
Four More
Ways To Fight
sometime strays
a bit too
close to plumbing
nu-metal depths,
with Tender
Folk Song
coming off
as a rather
pointless
comedy Korn
track. They
are much better
when using
their humour
to temper
some of the
more angry
moments on
songs like
Packaged Rebellion,
and Multi
Purpose Chemical
certainly
provide something
a bit different
in the metal
scene, harking
back almost
to the US
hardcore scene
from the late
80s, so it's
good to see
that they
have been
able to live
up to the
promise they
showed with
Cult.
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The
Nightjars
- Towards
Light
One
of Manchester's
best
young
bands,
The
Nightjars
are
here
with
a wonderful
mini-album
from
Reveal
Records,
produced
by Kramer,
who
has
previously
worked
with
the
likes
of Sonic
Youth
and
Low.
Both
of those
are
influences
on The
Nightjars,
as are
Velvet
Underground,
Super
Furry
Animals
and
Stereolab,
along
with
the
usual
suspects
from
the
Manchester
scene,
with
singer
Ollie
Wright's
vocals
sometimes
coming
somewhere
between
Morrissey
and
Kurt
Cobain.
Opening
track
You
Set
Me Reeling
kicks
things
off
very
nicely
with
some
great
guitar
work
building
a base
for
the
gorgeous
melodies
and
that
sets
the
tone
for
the
rest
of the
six
tracks
contained
here,
most
of which
are
instantly
memorable
and
certainly
hold
plenty
of promise
of what
these
guys
can
go on
to achieve.
It's
the
guitars
that
make
them
special
though,
with
twin
guitarists
Phil
and
Dan
creating
some
hypnotic
swirls,
particularly
on the
largely-instrumental
No Kicks,
and
each
track
on here
shows
what
you
can
do with
just
six
strings
beyond
just
the
usual
indie
schtick.
Not
since
The
Crocketts'
debut
album
have
we heard
a new
band
who
use
their
guitars
as intricately
and
effectively
as The
Nightjars,
and
that's
why
they
are
definitely
local
lads
to be
proud
of.
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