Review - Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen
High Hopes

Well, it's finally here - the new album from the Boss. I came to this with mixed expectations - on the one hand, he's been in kind of a slump recently. Magic was awful, and both Working on a Dream and Wrecking Ball were mediocre at best. But on the other hand, it's Bruce fucking Springsteen.Whatever he puts out, it's always wort a listen - he's made very few bad albums.

The title track is a vibrant, anthemic album opener, the kind of song guarunteed to get concert audiences singing along. Harry's Place shows a surprising return to Springsteen's '80s days - it's all swirling synth atmosphere and subtle, pulsing beats. It's fantastic, especially Tom Morello's guitar outro. The version of American Skin (41 Shots) is a little lacklustre, suffering from Springsteens recent tendency towards anthemicness for its own sake. Personally, I prefer this version. The next track is Just Like Fire Would, wich sounds like a rejected track from the Wrecking Ball sessions. Down in the Hole is no better - it's beginning to sound a lot like Springsteen's lost it, and that impression is only strengthened by the piss-weak attempted gospel of Heaven's Wall. Frankie Fell In Love is a half-decent pop song that rises above the previous tracks on the strength of its chorus and the fact that Springsteen actually appears to have some degree of emotional investment in the song. This Is Your Sword is just shit. Just utter, utter shit. Hunter of Invisible Game can go fuck itself, and the new version of Ghost of Tom Joad is pointless. The Wall is prety good, actually, but we've come to expect a lot more than pretty good from Springsteen. Fortunately, the album finishes with an excellent cover of Suicide's Dream Baby Dream, but that's not enough to save this abortion of a record.

Rating: 3/10

Review - Doom

Doom
Corrupt Fucking System

So, my first review of the year, and what better album to kick 2014 off with than a new release by crust legends Doom? Technically, Corrupt Fucking System came out in late 2013, but seeing as it was so late in December, I think it should count as a 2014 album. Doom have been around since the beginning of the crust movement (a long time by punk standards), and if this album is anything to go by, they haven't seen any reason to change their tried-and-tested formula: simple riffs, socio-political rage, and production covered with a layer of dirt about a foot thick.

With song titles like "Apostasy" and "Human Meat," you know what you;re going to get from this record; it's heavy, it's crusty, and it's pissed off. There is absolutely nothing new here, no surprise dubstep passages, no acoustic track. It's Doom doing what Doom do best. And what's wrong with that?

Well, to be honest, quite a bit. The songs are all good in and of themselves, but when you put all fourteen of them together, they get a bit boring. Don;t get me wrong - each track is a blistering adrenaline rush, everything you'd expect from a band of their stature, but there just isn't enough variety here to make it a great album. Any of of these songs would make a fantastic single, but at times it does sound like I've been listening to the same song for half an hour. There's nothing wrong with making every song very similar on a ten-minute EP, but over the course of Corrupt Fucking System's thirty-plus minutes, it gets quite wearying. I love Doom as much as the next man, and I really like each and every song on this album, but...overall, it's just kind of meh.

Rating: 6/10

Bigmouth Strikes Again (and he's right)

So - Morrissey! It seems as though every word out of this man's mouth offends a vast number of people. Recent scandals include reactionary bollocks regarding the Falklands, ill-judged comments on the Utoya attacks, and some welcome, if poorly thought-out, criticism of the royal family; but the main target of Morrissey's ire is meat. Meat eaters, the meat industry - he's like a parody of an in-your-face, preachy vegetarian. Now, he's compared eating meat to paedophilia, prompting the predictable chorus of outrage from the interwebs.

But, I have to wonder, do people really hate Morrissey because they're offended on behalf of child abuse survivors/the victims of Anders Breivik/whatever else he compares the meat industry to? Or are they simply shocked to see an outspoken vegetarian, one who dares to question the morality of slaughtering defenceless creatures en masse so that you can have a bacon sandwich? Here is a sample of some of the comments from articles about the incident:

Fuck the diet! Full English breakfast for me this morning after hearing this nonsense.

 This is what happens when people exist outside of societal norms for far too long... they go absolutely stark raving mad.
I will not greet a flesh eater? What utter nonsense. Poor delusional twit.

Just goes to prove veggies' don't have a brain.

And so on...

Penny Rimbaud once said that one of the reasons that so many meat-eaters seem to have so much hatred/ridicule for vegetarians is that nobody likes having their ideas challenged. A lot of the outrage online about Morrissey's anti-meat comments looks to me like people shouting down any dissenting opinion. It's a common tactic - get angry and berate someone for their lack of "respect" so that you don;t have to think about what they've said. You can see it in the way a Tory MP tried to shut down Glenda Jackson'scriticisms of Thatcher, or in what happened when people protested about the London Olympics, and I can certainly see it here. Nobody likes to be told that something they consider to be perfectly normal is in fact wrong.

Best Albums of 2013

Bill Orcutt - A History of Everyone
I wasn't sure where exactly to put this album on my list, so I decided to just shove it on the end where it wouldn't interfere with the top fifteen proper. It's a really great record - I posted a review of it yesterday, so I won;t go into too much detail here, but seriously - give it a spin. It's awesome

And now for the top fifteen:

15: Locust of the Dead Earth - Mithridate
This was the first album I ever reviewed on this blog, and I definitely got things off to a good start. It's a dense, delicate, swirling melange of ambient textures and drones, nihilism and beatitude, Neitszche and Brian Eno. I still don;t know how to pronounce that name, but I love this record.

14: The National - Trouble Will Find Me
I'd never listened to The National until tonight, and I'd always written them off as a hipster band, but holy fuck is this thing beautiful. It's kind of like a more organic-sounding Radiohead - the semi-ambient soundscapes, the subtle yet perfectly judged melodies, the oblique lyrics, every aspect of this album adds up to make a truly amazing piece of work.

13: Kanye West - Yeezus
A lot of people hate Kanye West, largely because he's a wanker. But what they forget is that he's a damn good musician. He may be a self-absorbed, arrogant dickhole, but he's also really good at taking the piss out of self-absorbed, arrogant dickholes. That comedic ability, along with West's talent as a producer, is what marks this album out as something special. He's also a damn fine rapper, far better than his overhyped, mediocre contemporary Jay Z.

12: Sting - The Last Ship
Sting is a much-underrated songwriter. People always slag him off because of the Police, and to be fair, they were a bit dull. But his solo work is fantastic, and this album is no exception. A concept album, based around the shipyards of Newcastle, The Last Ship runs the gamut of emotions, from raucous drinking songs to tear-sodden laments, often in the same song. Have no doubt, this is well worth buying.

11: Facebreaker - Dedicated to the Flesh
This is another album I hadn't listened to until today, and it was a hell of a find. Facebreaker are a Swedish death metal band, which probably tells you all you need to know about them. I don;t really listen to a lot of death metal, but Dedicated to the Flesh kicks all kinds of arse. It has everything you'd want in a death metal album and more. Buy this record. See this band.

10: Dead in the Dirt - The Blind Hole
Dead in the Dirt are a vegan straight edge band from the US, and their new album is a harsh, discordant affair. Feedback bleeds through pummeling hardcore like blood from a fist full of broken glass. There's something in the bleakness of this album that seems to come from black metal, rather than grindcore, and the album really benefits from that. The sheer coldness of The Blind Hole marks it out.

9: Islam85 - S/T
Islam85 sadly broke up this year, but this self-titled release was a truly outstanding final bow. It's the quintessential powerviolence record - low-down, bass-heavy chug, brutal fast sections, cheap and nasty production and pure, unadulterated rage. They blew my mind, and hopefully they'll blow yours, too.

8: Blister Unit - The Dengar Demo
I was hesitant to put this on the list, because (SPOILER ALERT) I didn't want to have two albums by the same band. But Blister Unit definitely merit the double placing. This is drum and bass powerviolence at its finest, enough to - dare I say it? - give Man Is The Bastard a run for their money. Blister Unit are an incredible band, and they deserve to be far better known than they are.

7: Sick/Tired - King of Dirt
King of Dirt kind of passed me by when it came out, but when I finally heard it, it knocked me for six. The sheer feral energy of this band is beyond compare - there are few bands who can ever hope to replicate the abrasive, ferocious assault on the ears that is King of Dirt.

6: Cloud Rat - Moksha
I've been a fan of Cloud Rat for quite some time, and they just get better and better. There's no one thing that makes Moksha a great album. Everything - the unorthodox melodicism, the focus on texture and atmosphere rather than mindless aggression, the imaginative guitar playing, the way the singer sounds like she's on the verge of jumping through the speakers and ripping your throat out - it all combines to make this arecord that is far greater than the sum of its parts. I would recommend this to any grindcore fan.

5: Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle
Ok, now we're into the big guns, the top five, and there's a slight change of pace with this one. Laura Marling has given the world some amazing music, and Once I Was An Eagle is no exception. It's jazzier than her previous efforts, tougher too, and generally more worldly. Marling sounds like she's been around the block once or twice, and has the scars to show for it. This is a wonderful record.

4: Blister Unit - Christ Ape
I've written about this album quite a bit, and it deserves every word of praise I've given it. It's a simple, fast blitzkreig of the senses, a collection of songs that seem to be physically shaking you and screaming in your face. You can practically feel the singer's breath. The guitar solos are a real high point - never wanky, never boring, just sheer aggression. One of the best grindcore bands around, full stop.

3: Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus
I knew Slow Focus would be on this list as soon as I heard it. It's a soaring, uplifting noise album, full of sound and fury, signifying - well quite a bit actually. Some hardcore noise fans have slagged it off for being too upbeat, too "accessible," but such complaints smack of hipsterism. And the less said about the fucktards who hate it because it's discordant, the better. If you like noise, electronica, or music in general, then I'd recommend this.

2: Merzbow and Nordvagr - Partikel III
Well, this is something. I never would have thought that anything could come along to knock Merzbow off the top spot, but it's happened. Still, nothing can take away the fact that this is one of the greatest Noise albums ever made. It's not as harsh as some Merzbow fans might expect, nor is it as soft as the Guardian readers would want, but it is what it is and what it is is something very, very special. It's difficult to describe Partikel III without slipping into hyperbole, but what I will say is that Merzbow and Nordvagr deserve a spot alongside Lou Reed and Throbbing Gristle in the Noise pantheon. Listen to this while high and you might just acheive nirvana.

1: Bill Callahan - Dream River
Well, this is it, folks - number 1. The king of the hill. The best album (imo) of the year. And I can think of few years when Dream River would not have deserved that title. Bill Callahan is a master songwriter - one of maybe two or three who deserve to be compared to Bob Dylan. There is not one single thing wrong with this album - the vocals are perfect, the lyrics are perfect, the music is perfect. If you've lost faith in modern music; if you think that all the great songs have already been written; if you don;t own any records made after 1975; then this is the album to change your mind. There is nothing hyperbolic about anything I've said here. Bill Callahan is a genius, and that is not a word I use lightly.

Review - Bill Orcutt

Bill Orcutt
A Hisory of Every One

Ok, it's been a while since I posted, due to various factors, but now I'm back with what is definitely the strangest (and hardest to classify) album that I've heard all year. Bear in mind, I am quite considerably drunk at the moment, so that may affect my judgement.

Alright, then, Bill Orcutt. I wasn't sure what to expect from this record - on the one hand, Orcutt was in Harry Pussy, and I fucking hate Harry Pussy. On the other, he plays a guitar with only two strings on at least one of these songs, and as someone who regularly plays with less than the recommended number of strings, I thought I should give it a look/listen. So I gave it a look/listen, and I'm glad that I did. Orcutt's new record is made up entirely of covers of old American standards, but there's nothing standard about the way he plays them. In his hands, songs like "When You Wish Upon A Star" and "White Christmas" become strange, distorted (de)compositions. He takes some of the most familiar songs in the western world and deconstructs them until they bear almost no relation to their original forms. His guitar spits out strange, jumbled fragments, semi-bluesy note clusters, dissonant skeletons somewhere in between John Fahey's acoustic work and John Fahey's electric work. Sometimes a few notes will come together to form something beautiful and melodious, as in "Spanish is the Loving Tongue," but more often he sounds like Blind Willie Johnson having a stroke - in a really, really good way. Occasionally, Orcutt's voice intrudes, adding eerie whoops and hollers to the jangling guitar.

The comparisons are obvious - Marc Ribot, Jandek, John Zorn - but Orcutt is his own musician, and he plays like noone else could. I won;t give this album a rating, partly because I'm currently too pissed to trust my own judgement, but also because I really don;t think I can reduce this music to a simple score out of ten. One thing's for sure, though - this will be one of my albums of the year.

Review - Bill Callahan

Bill Callahan
Dream River

I got into Bill Callahan quite recently - only a few months ago - and I've got to say, I can't believe I'd never heard of him before. He's a stunning songwriter, kind of like a male Joanna Newsom. His songs have the same sort of ever-shifting structure and complex lyrics as hers, and like her, he's one of the greatest lyricists around right now. It normally pisses me off to a disproportionate level when people say that a songwriter is "really a poet," because it carries with it the assumption that poetry is inherently better than song lyrics - someone can't just be a great lyricist, they have to be a "poet," even though they clearly aren't. A poet is someone who writes poetry. A songwriter is someone who writes songs. Bill Callahan is not a poet - he's a songwriter. But he could be a poet if he wanted to, and I'm pretty sure he knows that. His lyrics actually work like poetry, and the music he writes could easily work without vocals. Other than Newsom, I can't think of another songwriter of whom this can be said. Dream River, his new album, is another addition to an astonishing body of work. The music is intricately crafted, complex but never wanky, the lyrics are some of the best ever written (and I do not say that likely) and, to top it all off, there's the voice. That deep, rich voice, that Callahan weilds like a precision tool - his every syllable is perfectly weighted, given exactly the correct emphasis. His singing style is amost like speech, or like a poet performing his work. He kind of reminds me of a cross between Scott Walker and Lou Reed. Together, the lyrics, music and vocals make up what will almost certainly be the best album released this year. Listen to the album via the link above.

Rating: 10/10

Review - Death Grips

Death Grips
Government Plates

Well, it's finally here - the new Death Grips album.  If you haven't heard of Death Grips, then you've really been missing out. The are peraps the greatest hip-hop group around now, and one of the best that have ever been around. The deal in oblique lyrics set against a harsh, noisy background of brilliantly selected samples and brutal electronics. If you are new to them, though, this album is a pretty good place to start. It starts off with "You Might Think He Loves You For Your Money But I Know What He Really Loves You For It's Your Brand New Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat" - that's right, this is Death Grips referencing Dylan (though it's hardly surprising - they've sampled Link Wray and Arthur Brown before, so they clearly have a pretty wide-ranging taste in music). Like the rest of the album, it's heavy, it's dark, and while you'd need an interpreter to tell you what the lyrics actually mean, it's pretty clear it's nothing pleasant. The album is pretty much the same as their last three records, but that's not a bad thing - Death Grips know what they're good at and they do it well. And Government Plates isn't exactly the same as their previous output, in any case. There are more atmospheric passages here, and a greater emphasis on building a subtly threatening vibe than bludgeoning the audience into submission - closing track "Whatever I Want (Fuck Who's Watching)" is a case in point. It's not nearly as abrasive as the rest of the album, but that doesn't mean that it's soft, or poppy - it's just that it's more like the long, nerve-wracking part of a horror film where the monster is about to appear, rather than the bloody few seconds when it actually does. All in all, this is a quality album, and a worthy addition to Death Grips' discography.

Rating: 8/10