Album name: Perfect View Artist name: Libby Johnson Genre: Folk Released: 23 February 2010 Label: Wrong Records ZME Rating: 8/10 Website: libbyjohnsonmusic.com/ I want to preface this review with a plea, and a thank you. You see, this Libby Johnson album – quite a good album, as you’ve yet to find out – is, following Nite Nite and Phantom Family Halo, the third album in a row I’ve reviewed which has been sent my way…
Because the Drive-By Truckers make great music to drive to. (I presume. Being a half-blind halfwit, I’m stuck with public transport for now. [But mostly because, pun.]) I’ll come clean immediately, because I may have misled you slightly: you can’t actually buy the Drive-By Truckers. But, wonderfully, you will be able to buy their new album, The Big To-Do, come March 16, and unless you’re blind in your ears or something, you’d be well-advised to…
Hello! If you’re anything like me, you probably hate most things. You might even have publically announced yourself to be opposed to the concept of “people”, and declared emotions to be for the weak. But somewhere deep inside that decrepit old husk of a heart, you’re probably asking yourself if there’s any sweet, sincere, impressively jangly pop music out there, waiting to melt the icy tentacle of cynicism that currently clasps your weary aorta. With…
Album name: How To Touch The Moon Artist name: Nite Nite Genre: Gothy Stuff Released: 12 January 2010 Label: Crash Avenue ZME Rating: 6/10 Website: myspace.com/niteniteband As a beret-wearing, beard-stroking music cricket, there are certain aspects of my job I consider to be pretty vital. First among these is blagging as much free stuff as possible: if there’s a gig I can get into for free, you can bet your sweet bippy-boo I’m gonna be…
Album name: Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die Artist name: Phantom Family Halo Genre: Rock Released: October 2009 Label: Crash Avenue ZME Rating: 5/10 Website: myspace.com/thephantomfamilyhalo Um. Phwwwr. Chhhhk. Ahem. It’s not that there are no words to describe the Phantom Family Halo’s recent offering: it’s just hard to string whatever words come to mind into a working sentence. Let us be quite clear: the Phantom Family Halo are a bit mad. Deliberately so, perhaps,…
I suppose congratulations are in order to some of you readers. Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing In The Name” has been named the UK’s Christmas number one single, beating out X Factor winner Joe Mcthingy’s Miley Cyrus cover “The Climb” by some number of downloads. Or something. Well, woo bloody hoo. Have a metaphorical biscuit. It’s not that I don’t understand the impetus behind the whole Facebook campaign that started this whole escapade. I’m as…
Oooh, apologies for my completely unexplained absence from this organ last week. A variety of continuous, unlikely emergencies conspired to keep me away from my precious keyboard and monitor on Sunday, eventually culminating in an exciting race through Dublin to find a kind of precious anklet. Either that, or I was pathetically tired from working all week, and that anklet story was actually just an elaborate dream I had. I really don’t remember, and frankly,…
They say “familiarity breeds contempt”, but the more I hear that phrase, the more I dislike it. And not just because I’m a pathetic, desperate contrarian idiot – the phrase is wrong. Wrong. Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt. It breeds comfort, warmth, and eventually nostalgia. New things are awful, and potentially dangerous, and sometimes have questionable odours. Shun new things. Avoid them. Instead, you should wrap yourself in the comfortable blanket of the safe and familiar,…
You’ll forgive me if I wallow in a little self-indulgence this week – a new job and, more importantly, lethargy have prevented me from bothering to care about most music-related matters this week, outside of reminding myself quite how brilliant The Hold Steady truly are. If you don’t own any of their records, it’s important that you go buy one right now. In fact, buy all of them. They’re lovely. Two music matters that I…
Album name: Sweethead Artist name: Sweethead Genre: Rock Released: November 2 2009 Label: Strange Addiction/Play It Again, Sam ZME Rating: 5/10 Website: sweethead.net I sure hope the record company suit who decided it’d be a good idea to release Sweethead’s debut album in early November is picking bullet fragments out of his own navicular bone right now. Sweethead, if you didn’t know, are the side project of Queens of the Stone Age’s multi-purpose axeman, Troy…
Al Byrne