The Men – Leave Home

The Men - Bataille

Runs for: 4:15

Grungy and rough. Can't really describe it any other way.

The Men. Possibly the most awkward band to admit to your friends and family that you like.

This album took a while to grow on me, as did the band. I’d first started listening to their third album, Open Your Heart, which holds a great blend of rock, indie, post hardcore and even hints of country. However, Leave Home is a very raw album that takes the listener on a bit of a sonic journey, starting off with a psychedelic punk sound, jumping to ball busting punk-hardcore before heading in a surf punk-rock direction and finally ending with the crushing Night Landing with all its flanged bass goodness. There’s a very grungy edge to the album, but it also manages to keep itself giving off a very spacey sort of beach vibe. Shit’s cool yo.

In some ways this album could be liked by a pretty open audience, but not as a whole. Tracks such as ( ) and Batille are both pretty similar and have a hard indie/punk sort of vibe to them. Lotus and Shittin’ with the Shah are instrumental tracks, and can really get you going if you’re open to it – Shittin’ with the Shah is an awesome song to dance around to and I get pretty happy when I listen to it.

I think one of the things that I love about this album is that while it's all pretty simple stuff, it's very evocative and a lot of the songs will get you moving in one way or another - whether it's dancing to the instrumental tracks or humming along to the tracks with vocals.

The album employs two heavier tracks that you would probably list as hardcore punk. The first of these, Think, is fantastic for burning off steam as the song pulverises the eardrums with the vocals and practically every instrument the band has at their expense. The second song, L.A.D.O.C.H., might be a bit too much. It attempts to replicate that slow, droning hardcore style that Converge used to bridge their old albums together (L.A.D.O.C.H. being very similar to Converge’s ‘When Forever Comes Crashing’ style) – but even on an album as diverse as this it comes off as unnecessary. The harder edge that we get on Leave Home is left out on their next album which is unfortunate, as these guys seem to pull off that grunge surf punk sound in a unique method which makes this album so good.

If this album comes off as a bit too hard, I recommend checking out Open Your Heart. Animal, the title track Open Your Heart, Candy and Ex-dreams are all very different and fantastic songs, and a band with the balls to diversify their albums deserves your attention. I honestly can’t wait to see what these guys put out next.

These dudes are also touring Laneway, and are a giant part of why I want to go. If you’re going to Laneway, feel free to take lots of pictures of or with the band and rub it in my tear strewn face.

Reccomended for: Refused fans, At The Drive fans who wouldn’t mind getting some Hendrix-esque effects on board, people who dance in the car while they drive. Also hippy punks if such a thing exists.

The Men - Shittin with the Shah

Runs for: 4:52

I find this song weirdly inspirational. I love the shit out of the drums big time. 

If you're not dancing by the end of it, you have no soul.

The Men - Think

Runs for: 3:37

One of the hardcore tracks. Simple, yet effective. 

I listen to this when I need to burn off steam.

Future Of The Left - The Plot Against Common Sense

Future of the Left - Sheena is a T-shirt Salesman

Runs for: 2:07

The album's opener and one of it's better songs. Too bad it goes downhill after that.

So I run down to my usual record store the other day, checking the shelves as I do when I'm killing time in the city. I find Future of the Left's newest album, which I think would be a good purchase, due to the quality of the previous releases the band's front man has been involved with. However, I listen to it and I've got something figured out. The band’s frontman, Howling Welshman Andy Falkous’ had this brilliant epiphany: ‘Hey, we’ve already created the best rock album ever, so let’s go ahead and create an experimental rock album wooooooooohhhh!!!’.

Yeah alright, there’s a lot of tracks on this album compared to those earlier releases - and that turns out to be a giant fucking blight on it as a whole. Their previous album, ‘Travels With Myself And Another’ pushed some boundaries is what rock should be about (Inform Chad Kroger of this, or shoot him if you’d prefer). You could listen to that album from first to last and love the shit out of it, and I guess I was a bit naive to purchase The Plot Against Common Sense with the same expectations.

Now the thing I loved about Travels was that even if the song started off a bit shit, you know, left you asking ‘Why the fuck would you open a song like that?’ There’d be something to bring it back into place, and then far beyond said place transforming the song into the best thing ever. Typically the hooks would be thunderous, borderline heavy metal bass tone coupled with Falkous’ wickedly constructed guitar work over the chorus while he'd be using what can only be described as the lyrical and vocal style of a mental patient. The drums brang it all together with rock-y or sometimes snappy input.

Now while Plot opens well with ‘Sheena was a T-shirt salesman’ (the song’s got a catchy riff and a good ‘fuck you’ message to merchandisers in the music industry) it’ll take you up to about 6 or more tracks past that to get something good. The songs start shit, and stay that way. I shouldn’t have to wait that long on an album for a good song to pop up. To paraphrase the lyrics Falkous sang in ‘Day Of The Deadringers’ - back in his days playing in McLusky - in the midst of all the touching and the kissing he's forgot the penetration. There's nothing here that gets the listener going.

Falkous has opted to use a weak, monotonous singing style for a couple of tracks and that shits me to no end. He knows how to inflect, he knows how to scream like a demon, yet for some reason he decides to go on like a disinterested call centre worker who's tone comes as a result of his balls getting pinched in his pants. A fucking mystery indeed. A lot of the tracks are pretty monotonous too. No thunderous bass, no innovative chorus, just… quiet. Nothing.

There is some good on the album though. ‘Robocop 4 – Fuck off Robocop’ is a pretty interesting song. It’s a bit experimental, but it raises a pretty decent point about the state of the movie industry and some of the shit that it churns out for the sake of self perpetuation. However it's nothing new (see: Lapsed Catholics from Travels)  From that point on the album tries to pick up – ‘I Am The Least Of Your Problems’ rolls with a catchy drum roll, well delivered lyrics and the thunderous bass the album so rightly needs, but doesn’t really make up for that wanting void of boring songs through the middle.

I guess that means there’s about 3 or 4 songs worth listening to on the album, which puts a band which is capable of such innovation on the same pedestal as your run of the mill indie radio rockers. I’m actually a bit gutted. It’s kind of like they finished it and just said ‘fuck it, it’ll do’.

By the time you finish listening to Anchor you figure out the problem with the album. The songs don’t pick up, ever. They just play the same boring goddamn riff over without giving you a big finish, any hooks, anything.  I listen to rock for a fucking dynamic, and instead I’ve been given the musical equivalent of a Alzheimer’s patient, rambling the same incoherent thing over and over, all the while depressing and immobile.

Maybe this album will take a while for me to get into. I mean, their first album, Curses, took me a bit to understand. Hell even Falkous’ first band McLusky took me a bit to understand – but after two listens I got it. I’ve listened to Plot twice and I’m pretty sure for the most part, it’s objectively shit. Only time will tell, I suppose.

I’ll probably end up doing a Travels With Myself and Another review just to counteract that. Seriously, you can get it from Landspeed for $15 bucks and it’s fantastic, literally the best thing to come out of the UK before those Kate Middleton nudes surfaced (or rather how pissed off the royal family got). You’ll hear how good it is and you’ll see why I’m so butt flustered with how Plot turned out.

I’ll put forward my favourite track from that, I’m planning on doing a McLusky review too. Falkous has been at the head of a couple of brilliant albums over the past 10-15 years and this album being a letdown is no reason to dismiss his earlier involvements at all.

Reccomended for: People who wouldn’t mind getting The Hives,  The Arctic Monkeys and Queens Of The Stone Age together to make a supergroup. Only they’re on crack. And you have to deal with both the highs and the lows. Also, punks and people who have an itch for distorted bass driven madness.

Future of the Left -  Arming Eritrea

Runs for: 2:57

One of the tracks from Travels With Myself And Another. 

Bass driven furious goodness. 

When i got my mits on this album, I played this song twice a day for about a week and a half. 

I *NEVER* do that.

Future of the Left - Throwing Bricks at Trains

Runs for: 2:36

Another track from 'Travels'.

I feel my review here has only got their louder songs. 

This is catchy as sin and is pretty easy on the ears. Highly recommend it to all.  

 

Future of the Left - I Am the Least of Your Problems.

Runs for: 2:31

One of the other half decent tracks off 'The Plot'. 

Let this in no way be an indicator of the quality of the rest of that album.

Bloc Party - Four

Bloc Party - Octopus

Runs for: 3:05

The single off the new album.

I believe it's one of the weaker tracks on the album, which makes this a weird choice for a single.

Bit of a foreword here:

Bloc Party are a hard band for me to criticise. They’re a band that pops up a lot in conversations – if you ask someone what bands they’re into, I’d be surprised if you got through three people without someone saying Bloc Party. The difficulty here is that everyone who likes them, likes them for a different reason which lies down to the listener's favourite album.

Silent Alarm has a special place in my heart, even though my tastes have shifted and evolved dramatically, I’ll still remember hearing the catchy riffs and wicked drumming from in the kitchen of my old place back in my teenage years. Then Weekend in the City came out. I didn’t like it that much, but it ended up being the favourite of a couple of close friends and I still quite like a few tracks from it. I saw them play live just after the release of Intimacy, and while I admit I never listened to the album fully, I had a a decent appreciation for the weird dancey electro tunes they were putting out.


After all of this, we come to Four.



Now Four for me is never going to be a part of my life like the other albums were because I'm a giant wanker and get all my music info off the net. I guess this time around I'll be able to review one of their albums without bias and investigate its musical strengths.

The album is pretty good in places, but sometimes lacking for a couple of reasons. The one thing that should be standing out here as you listen would be the fact that a lot of the music is better constructed - it's got a much more mature sound to it. What I mean by this is that the good songs of the earlier albums could instantly jump to anthem status. They were in your face and got you going. You'd hear banquet out on a night and everyone would be jumping around and singing. Nothing on this album really does that to me, and considering that was one of Bloc Party's strengths, the change in dynamic leaves parts of the album lacking. I'd also like to say that making Octopus a single was a fucking terrible decision, as Team A pretty much uses that unique loop effect they've got going on, only in a good fashion.

That's not to say that it's not a good album. The first few tracks are pretty decent and 3x3 as a song pretty much puts forward the fact that Bloc Party are grown up now. However, there aren't any songs where Kele puts forward those poppy lyrics he does so well and any attempt he puts forward seem weaker than his previous releases. This is going to leave a sour taste in the mouth of people who love this band based on his vocal work - and for good reason too since a lot of their best songs were driven by this (arguably).

A couple of media releases about the album's release named it as Bloc Party's 'metal' album. By this they mean they put two hard tracks on it which sound like a sped-up version of a bad Muse track (so anything after mid 2000's really). They pull it off pretty well actually and it makes the album a little bit ambitious. It's a pretty bold move really, for them to add any more of their poppier or slow stuff on the album, they'd be running the risk of pushing in blatant filler tracks. So clap clap good on them.

Overall I'd say it can compare to their earlier stuff. I think I like it better than Intimacy and the band is headed in a good direction, but only if they manage to get Kele to let his vocal work catch up with the rest of the band who have really asserted themselves here.

Recommended for: It's Bloc Party. Honestly if you need me to tell you about these guys stop listening to your parents favourite radio station and grow a pair.

Bloc party - We are not good people

Runs for 3:19.

One of the 'metal' tracks. 

In your face and a strong closing track for the album.

Bloc Party- Real Talk

Runs for: 4:13

One of the slower, melodic tracks. 

Should really outline what I was saying about the band being musically evolved, 

but somehow Kele's vocals don't really do it for me here.

Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You (Song choice: Terminus)

 

The following song reminds me of waiting around airports on the way up to the Europe trip. Maybe just in name, but there’s a way that the start of the song uses a monotonous bass, rolling drums and obscure guitar riff that sort of made me feel like an outsider. I was observing people move while I sit comfortably. They all had a purpose and I’m sitting there in my own world, trapped in my headphones while they scurry like ants.

http://youtu.be/QcA1H7m8xw0

Unwound - Terminus 

Runs for 9:51

The album itself, Leaves Turn Inside You, is one of the best indie albums I've listened to - no screw that, one of the best in EXISTENCE. Something I like about it is that most tracks on the album are quite varied. Funnily enough, Terminus isn't one of my favorite songs on it when compared to the rest of the album - there are a lot of really chilled out prog-indie songs, some of it goes into catatonic noise rock, some of it is slow and melodic and can really set a mood. I was listening to the opening track on the way up to a hostel in the Rhine Valley in Germany and the natural beauty of the area in spring really complemented the music. The album is completely like that, atmospheric.

That said though, some of it gets a bit too experimental or slow, and I find I have to skip it or else I’ll get the shits. What’s good on the album though overshadows the bad by miles.

The band themselves are a little experimental, and have changed their style slowly over each album starting at post hardcore/punk rock and ending with art rock. However, a lot of their style changes - while similar - have come a little later than other post hardcore greats such as drive like jehu and Fugazi. None the less though, well worth a listen.

Reccomended for: Fans of Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Fugazi’s later stuff, Indie fans, people who are stuck in cars or behind desks for a good period (it’s not a short album). Also stoners probably.

Unwound - October All Over 
(favorite track on the album) 

Relaxed track. Something to listen to in a psychedelic coma. The guitar work is one of the most beautiful yet slightly haunting musical pieces I've ever heard.
 

Runs for 4:56

http://youtu.be/Axemfr9pEeA

Unwound - We Invent You 
(opening track)

This is the song I heard riding through the Rhine Valley. The drum work is snappy, yet the guitars are airy. 
They complement each other well.
 

Runs for 4:07

NB - skip the first 20 or so seconds. It'll just be noise. outside of that it's a great track.

 

http://youtu.be/GSBOk5zjf2U

ZDRAVSTVUJ COMRADE (or whatever this is a welcome post)

Welcome to Mr Tom's Musical Revolution!

I've decided to set this up as I'm a massive muso and I feel the need to ram my hipster tastes right down your throat. Not to say that this is a bad thing though, call it an awareness program I guess.

I kid, I kid.

I guess the reason for doing this is that I believe that there's a load of fantastic stuff out there that goes under the radar. I'd also like to brush up on my critical skills, and while a lot of what I'll be posting comes from my tastes and what I like, I suppose I'd be open to review requests. I'd love to see what you think about my work here, and of course what you think about the music. Of course, keep it constructive. If your response is 'ur shit' - guess what, you're the one that's shit. fuck you.

If I can get at least one person into a band they haven't heard of, that will make this blog worth it. That is my goal. Music is a great tool on so many levels, it's helped me develop a lot of skills not limited to boosting my critical and musical abilities and it's pretty much the only thing that keeps me sane during every job I've had.

So, what kind of music will I be reviewing? I'm hoping my taste doesn't really put a block on the scope. My main tastes are a bit heavy, I'll admit. I'm big on post hardcore at the moment, but isn't that really just rock with a fancy title? and yeah, I'm big on sludge metal and crust punk... But I'd like to make this blog more about accessible music - good indie acts, art rock, bit of hip hop and house music plus a shit ton more. I'll probably be reviewing a lot of albums I got into this year and work from there. I'll also talk about how some songs hold individual meaning - and I'll touch on this in a separate post.

Well, with that said if there's anything you'd think I'd like, as either a reviewer or a person please chuck it my way! I'd like to see what you've got.

Enjoy! or fuck off, whatever suits you best.