Rather than reviewing an obvious release like Ryan Adam’s latest release, I’m continuing with the less known stuff. 

Bitter Bitter Weeks latest release Peace Is Burning Like a River have diverged from their more somber sounds in a big way. This is full of bright shiny 60s style guitar work, imagine The Delays swapping their synths for guitars. Brian McTear’s vocals match the mood beautifully with a light and sweet vocal.  Even the lyrical content feels more cheerful.

I’ve been listening to this album, both in the car and on my MP3 Player – I have to say it does sound far better when given a chance to breath in an open space than with earphones – even these cracking Sennheisers.

My recommendation is atleast have a listen to the tracks on Bitter Bitter Weeks’  MySpace site.  If you’re a Delays fan then don’t waste time – order the album NOW!

Lots of thumbs up from the Monster.

We got to see another fine performance by Tom McRae at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire as he tours supporting his latest album King Of Cards.  I managed to capture some pictures with the mobile phone – more can be seen here.

Tom, has over a number of albums proven himself to a fine singer songwriter. But, for me the songs taken on something special when you hear him perform them live.  Even last night, whilst suffering ‘man flu’ sounded good, and delivered the songs with passion and emotion that lyrics carry.

Not only does he perform well, everytime we’ve seen him, he engages with the audience joking and telling stories, something that really makes it feel that he is there for you.

This time around Tom’s support was Steve Reynolds, who played a great little set, and went down a treat with the audience (no mean feat for a support artists). All that and playing his guitar while struggling with a broken collar bone. Steve’s performance was engaging enough that we’ve ordered the album (another import).

The final gem, of the evening is picking up a EP of Tom’s that I’d not heard of – The Strongroom Sessions (autographed as well).  Having not heard about it, I thought I’d search around for it today on the web and can’t find any reference to it – is his record company letting him down?

A Little slow reviewing this – having been out for a month or two. But I  have found that Tori’s later albums take a lot longer to digest as her lyrics tend towards the obscure. Although the  subject of the opening song on latest album American Girl Posse leaves little space for misunderstanding as criticism of George Bush.

The album’s song fluctuate from style to style as it delivers songs from different members of the ‘posse’ which it does with a fair degree of success. It seems that its each of the songs intros provide the clearest indication of which character is performing. 

Unlike earlier albums the presence of the drums and guitar are a lot more noticeable giving album a more driven feel overall where as earlier albums the other instrumentation tended to be lower in the mix giving space the vocals and piano.

Overall not a bad album, but not Tori Amos at her best. But still distinctive and a cut above other the other ‘kookie’ female singer/songwriters.

I’ve come across a little gem of an album – Different Places by Plastic Operator (homepage, myspace).  If you can imagine early period Air (Premier Symptomes, Moon safari) combined with a slightly stronger beat and a little 80s synth in places then you’re getting the right direction.  You can hear a couple of the tracks on their myspace.

This is the debut album by Plastic Operator – yet has been well reviewed by Uncut and album of the week for Rough Trade when it was released (14th May 2007 in Europe).  If you’re really quick then you may get one of the signed copies if you purchase the album via their website (like Monster has).

“Not since The Postal Service have we heard an album that joins together electro and pop so perfectly.”
-Rough Trade Shop

You can find Plastic Operator’s bio here.

It about time I did another review. Although I prefer not to review mainstream artists, after all they get plenty of press already. I think this album warrants some attention as Jarvis Cocker has released under his own name rather than Pulp.

After Jarvis’ weird off shoot Relaxed Muscle we find this album returning to more familiar grounds. Although this isn’t Pulp it certainly is Jarvis at the top of his game lyrically. In truth the only real difference between this and a genuine Pulp album comes in the shape of lyrical subject and instrumentation.

Instrumentally it isn’t so hook laden and up beat (Do You Remember The First Time for example), so it takes more time to get to grips with it, but repeated listens certainly pay dividends.  There are exceptions which are more musically reminiscent of Pulp’s drive such as Black Magic.

At the heart of Pulp and any good Jarvis solo effort of course are his observations through story based lyrics, and this certainly meets that.  The difference between this and Pulp are subjects, the focus on the teenage and student views of life (hiding in wardrobes to watch your friend’s sister (Babies), living the life of the less well off (Common People)) has to an extent been replaced by broader issues although songs like Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time (the first single from the album) riff on those old themes, but other songs look at people in power (Running The World) and social climate (Heavy Weather, From A To I).

So if you like Pulp for its smart lyrics, you’ll love this. But if your preference is for pop sensibilities I’d approach with caution and try before you buy. Personally, I think its a fine album.

Links:

Relaxed Muscle (wikipedia)

Jarvis Cocker (myspace)

Pulp (official site)