So last week I had my needed tinfoil epiphany and determined that I had to stop with the comparisons and just get on with the listening. This week has just about broken me so I’m back to what I do best; I’m comparing everything in sight. But don’t judge me too harshly. Everyone has their weaknesses, you know?
Royal Bangs - Let it Beep
Rockabilly geetars? Check. Bumpy tight drumming? Check. Good progressive songs with just the right balance of dynamics and pace changes? Yes indeedy. Sudden shifts from alt-country into Beck-styley electronica chucka chucka with loads of vavavoom? What we have here is Royal Bangs’ Let it Beep.
This band, from Knoxville, has tapped into all the amazing influences flowing around the Mississip. And it really shows especially in their ability to shift from anthemic bar chords into dancefloor grooves, no mean feat especially when you consider that the current line-up of frontman Ryan Schaefer, drummer Chris Rusk, guitarist Sam Stratton, Henry Gibson and Brandon Biondo have only been together for less than two years though the first three have been together since high school. Now here’s the cool thing: when you listen to this album next to their previous We Breed Champions, you’ll notice that it’s a heck of a lot more Euro in its sound. This is no surprise as Schaefer flounced around France for a year before starting the followup and it really shows. Some songs border on later Kraftwerk while others are downright Maximo Park.
Highlights from the album include “My Car is Haunted,” which bears more than a small resemblance to Miike Snow as well as the very amusingly titled “S**t X-mas” which is arguably the poppiest of the album and sounds more like a raw Strokes effort than electronica. “B&E” harkens back to instrumentals from the soundtrack to Pretty in Pink and “Tiny Prince of Keytar” is more warm and fuzzy core indie.
This album is once more one of those mix-tape type of recordings, every song a little different from the last giving the impression of a compilation rather than a single band. I pretty much always enjoy these types of albums as I have such a short attention span that often I can’t see a whole album through without boredom or judgement setting in. This manages to evade both at least for the most part – it’s about two songs too long in my opinion. But actually other than that, I really enjoyed this one. kkkk1/2
Recommendation from Matt – The Domino State
Matt has been trying to get me to listen to Domino State for well over a year now and I can’t for the life of me remember what my freakin’ problem was. But whatever the excuse (the dog ate my laptop?), I finally got around to it this week after yet another plea. Their new single “ Firefly” is out now so the timing is good.
In terms of the sound, the harmonies are very full-figured and warm with lead vocalist Matt Forder adding a nice melancholy to the whole. Noteworthy too is that guitarist Tim Buckland is the brother of somewhat more famous Jonny Buckland, the lead guitarist from Coldplay. The sound of The Domino State owes a lot more to My Bloody Valentine than to Chris Martin and his cronies but only if you ignore the obvious comparison to Snowpatrol. Because the vocals are very, very Snowpatrol. Ultimately it’s really straight up shoegaze, though done better than most. kkk1/2
The Tailors - Come Dig Me Up
As I jumped the gun on the iTunes free download last week, a recommendation of my own instead – The Tailors new album, Come Dig Me Up is out now on RoughTrade and it’s a tasty feast of middle-America, Jay Hawky goodness brought to you via the mean streets London. If you’ve not already done so, check out a few of their tracks onwww.myspace.com/thetailors.
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