Category: Reviews

It’s hard to isolate “Blue Skies” from its album, “The First Days of Spring”, but seeing as it makes such a beautiful single, it’s worth a shot.

Noah and the Whale (namely Charlie Fink) have evolved massively as songwriters since last year. This is something “Blue Skies” optimises perfectly. The track builds up an air of expectant hope, not only in the lyrics (‘Blue Skies are coming/But I know that it’s hard’) but also in the opening bars of music that peak into a soaring chorus and then ebb back into place.

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Andy Nice has played cello with screaming gothic pervs Cradle of Filth and bald techno ravers Orbital, and is currently in string + dance combo Instrumental. He also has a name more suited to a particularly over familiar used car salesman.

Ignoring the fact he’s currently touring with deep-voiced chamber-pop stars Tindersticks and the embroidered patch on the front of the cd, you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s not much here for the good people of FFS. But press play and an entirely different sound to that expected issues forth – arresting, emotional, complex yet melodic cello music. And it really is cello music, pretty much just that instrument, with songs formed from layer after layer of rich string sound.

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There are some astounding duo acts out there, and The Dodos’ 2008 album Visiter easily set them apart from the rest. This year’s Time To Die does not disappoint and sees the duo become a trio, introducing vibraphonist Keaton Snyder into the mix with exciting consequences.

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Murray Evans really needs a redneck drawl, a proper Bible-belt country style voice, because it would really fit a lot of the songs on World At Large. Having the voice would definitely do something for the album, which otherwise is a little lacking. Evans puts on a fairly good redneck impression on the track ‘Codeine Dreams’ and it improves (perhaps that’s not the word I want – affirms?) it greatly.

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There is something rather comforting to this album, an almost homely feel to the slightly country influenced brand of folk that The Cave Singers create. Perhaps it’s the acoustic simplicity that gives this air of unassuming naïvety to the album, or perhaps it’s the hint of a croak in lead singer Pete Quirk’s voice; either way the music is trustworthy.

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So Interpol’s frontman Paul Banks has joined the growing ranks of blokes in bands releasing solo records, but does the world need another outlet for his creative juices?

On first listen, and particularly on first track Only If You Run, you’d have to say a big fat ‘no’. It plods, it whines, and it lacks any of the tense energy of Interpol at their best.

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In 1986 Sam Baker was blown up Peruvian terrorists. He spent days in hospital unable to move, he underwent weeks of surgery including on his brain and treatment for shrapnel and gangrene. After the explosion Sam had to learn to walk and talk again. He’s deaf in one ear and the loudest sound in the other is ringing.

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Bellowhead’s cellist, singer and violinist Rachael McShane takes us through her first solo album, No Man’s Fool, track-by-track.

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