Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, Review

This is one of those albums that I have always wanted to write something about. Released in the latter part of 2000, it for me is without doubt the best album I have ever heard. Subjective a point though that may be, I struggle to see some of the recent lists of favourite/best albums of the noughties that do not even give this group a look in.

For those of you who may not know the band(I will call them GYBE), they are one of the most prominent and critically acclaimed post rock bands in history. Post rock certainly gets a lot of stick for itself, accusations of pretense and over-complicating their style, or even trying too hard to be different, are all commonplace. GYBE have an orchestral feel, added to by virtue of their large number(roughly nine band members) and the inclusion of a type of free jazz, and without doubt hints of chamber music. This classical approach, twisted with long compositions, rock instrumentation, (at times) psychedelic approach, intricate and intelligent progression, stripped up and stripped down variations, and most importantly, fine musicianship, for me make this record incontestable and unmatched, certainly in the post-rock circuit. I will briefly mention a two other post rock bands that come to my head to try and solidify my point. God is an Astronaut are certainly my favourite of all the contemporary offerings, and in some ways can even be labelled 'generic' post rock for their lack of experimentation within the boundaries of the genre, but despite this rather crude accusation they still remain(for me) one of the best groups doing it for the moment, their first and most recent albums standing out by a country mile each for me. (As a side note, look them up on YouTube, the best example I can give is 'Fragile' - a song by them, they play video pieces when they play live I suppose, to kind of fill the lyricless void, and it does a lot more than that).

Whilst they are a brilliant band, God is an Astronaut have not been able to reach the sort of musical, orchestral peaks that GYBE on their third offering. I will ensure brevity only referencing one more example, Mogwai(I wanted to talk about Meanwhile, Back in Communist Russia... but I only have one of their albums as of yet). Now, this band is a great pioneer of attempting to push this post rock genre into any sort of mainstream. I will only say that Mogwai have failed to reproduce the same sort of material that they offered on their debut, and on Rock Action, on a consistent basis. Which means an awful lot in a genre where many often accuse the proponents of lengthy, boring, bland instrumental pieces.

You can either hear this album, and hear a lot of white noise, clumsily included speeches, loose progression that springs up and down out of nowhere, and conclude your pre-garnered suppositions of the genre. Though it does take a sort of commitment to listen to this band. The first seven minutes of the second track 'Static' seem to be just rumbling along with no clear direction, until an incredible monologue is delivered. The meaning of which we cannot be sure, GYBE are not the type of band to give any clues, "There will be terror under this day of night, there will be a song of jubilee waiting for your King, there will be nothing you will be looking for in this world, except for your God. This is all a dream, a dream in death. "

Now I will not attempt to play simply on the sound scope I am so impressed with in this album. It is true that GYBE fill a lot of void with monologues which include ranting leftish rhetoric about, "the way things used to be," or about rebelling against authority. It, for me, is a loose, inaccurate, almost sloppy political calling. But to focus on it too much would be to miss the point I believe. If I am to sum up the musical offering of this I will string a pretentious sounding sentence together like this; this work is painfully beautiful, I know of no other band who can combine fascinating, chaotic, buzzing, shoe gaze inspired crescendos, combine these with lulled and haunting melodies with a sonic scope that was beyond its time, and most importantly, build a bridge between the two for an entire album. This album is absolutely essential for all, as it approaches its ten year anniversary.

RATING: 10/10

Dizzee Rascal - Tongue n' Cheek, Review

It's been an interesting year for Dizzee Rascal. Prior to his first #1 with Calvin Harris and Chrome, he was still considered by many to another grime act who will refuse to stop making music. Then he discovered how to make a pop song. Hence Tongue n' Cheek. There are times on the album where I hope that's all this is for Dylan Mills, a temporary spin into the mainstream just to show how easy it can be for someone so talented. Even one of the b-sides of this album, the electro-grime Live Large n' in Charge still displays his ability to pen original, innovative grime.

But that's exactly what this isn't. First singles Bonkers, Dance Wiv Me and Holiday stand out on early listens. Road Rage is a slightly more in tone with his roots effort. Sometimes you struggle to decipher what exactly Dizzee is trying to say on this album, whereas Boy in da Corner is an album that refuses to die and is certainly considered the definitive grime album, you can see this LP not lasting the distance and it most certainly has lost him a lot of people who would have considered themselves 'loyal' fans - and he has replaced them with chart fans, who will like anything which they find easy to listen to.

Despite this, this pop effort is still a lot better than what 'serious' pop artists will put out this year. His ability for finding clever rhymes still prevails and saves some of less tasteful numbers, such as Freaky Freaky. And the Tiesto produced Bad Behaviour is an impressive album closer. But that is the problem with this album, it could easily be considered a collection of possible singles, there's little direction, little reason to justify why a song like Freaky Freaky made the cut and Live Large n' in Charge didn't other than its potential acceptability to chart audiences.

It's easy to call this album Dizzee's "sell out" album, but most of his fans will certainly find this a enjoyable, laid back listen. Powerful numbers from his old days such as Stop Dat, Paranoid and Hype Talk are replaced for chilled out offerings such as Chillin' Wiv Da Man Dem and Dirtee Cash and it's fair to argue that he's simply expanding his musical horizons with a bit of experimentation, it just so happens that his experiment seems to be reaching out to the pop world, rather than usual route of the other way about. Listenable, but not memorable.

RATING: 6.9/10

The Maccabees - Wall of Arms, Review.

I have been wanting to review this album from the first time I listened to it. The Maccabees have taken the gauntlet of being just another 'indie' band(even though there is no such thing as an 'indie' genre, two bands can be 'indie' whilst having completely different styles) and ripped through this preconditioned label. There is no doubting Markus Dravs(producer) played a vital role in this, developing on Colour It In's youthful, carefree sound and making it bigger, larger, grander, whatever you want to call it.
Wall of Arms is a seamless album, no track sounds out of place and no lyric is not well written. Just as Dravs input has given The Maccabees increased street cred, and has widened their compositional abilities, Orlando Weeks' development as a lyricist runs parallel to this. What was "Latchmere's, got a wave machine," in Colour It In becomes, "Your carbon makes a star/ Your carbon makes a star/ And after all that's all we are." in Wall of Arms. While their theme was carefree and relationship based in their debut, epitomised by what is still probably their biggest hit, Toothpaste Kisses, Weeks delved lightly into serious themes, singing in All in Your Rows, "So here's your church, and here's your steeple/ And you're locking your doors to keep in all the people." - But in Wall of Arms he goes all out, "Through these eyes/ There's no god above me/ No devil below me, no purgatory, no pearly gates/ The worms are what await me." The maturing of lyrics has also been matched with the development of the actual musicianship, big sounds with horns, spacey guitar riffs and intricate progressive drum beats as well as stints of acapella break songs up and build songs up with a skill that wasn't apparent on their first effort.
While what makes this album such an achievement is the sheer amount by which they have improved, they have raised expectations greatly and to follow this up with a third album of 11 similar songs would be a major disappointment. They have set the bar very high, hopefully they have some more tricks up their sleeves for whenever #3 comes about. One of the best albums, if not the best album, of 2009.

RATING: 9.6/10

Mr Hudson - Straight No Chaser, Review.

In Kanye West's 808's and Heartbreaks at the climax of 2008, he offered us what I believe to be his best work. The album's style an experiment in itself, and the subject matters more in line with what Mr Hudson and his highly talented Library played to on their first album, he(Kanye) developed what he believed to be a 'new genre' of music, and he deemed it 'Pop Art'. Mr Hudson's album is highly influenced by his time with Kanye, whether or not this has to do with Hudson's musical style actually changing, or whether or not it outlines his versatility in being able to write for both American and British audiences is debatable. I would lean towards the latter and I find myself quite impressed with this offering.

The first(notable) single, Supernova, opens up the album with a powerful, chaotic chorus and lyrics. What's interesting here is Hudson's new found liking to the use of the Auto-tune device, whether this is a move to keep Kanye happy I'm not sure, because Mr Hudson's voice certainly does not need this assistance, a fact you would know if you ever had the pleasure of listening to the first album he was involved with, A Tale of Two Cities. He uses the device for the most part of the album, and whilst sometimes you find yourself feigning enjoyment because of his singing talent without it, other times you would rather he discarded it.

Mr Hudson's ability for penning noticeably English lyrics is charming, "Anyone but him/ I'd rather hear you had the whole football team...With schoolboy fists we can take this outside/ But knowing my luck that fuck would win." - And it gives the album a character that Kanye almost sucks out of the album with his horribly out of place verse on the quoted song above, Anyone but Him. Having said that, that would be the only thing Kanye does wrong in this record, his influence cannot be avoided on every song, highlight moments of Knew We Were Trouble, Straight No Chaser, Central Park(which could easily be a Mr Hudson & the Library track, Joy Joseph's input is beautifully done) and Everything is Broken combine the two artists' differences and similarities to a point of alternative-folkish-quasi-hip-hop-electro which is original enough to separate itself from 808s and close enough to gain it comparisons which should garner more listeners.

Whether or not this album will do the job of endearing American audiences to his English accent, which seems to be his unique selling point to many, is hard to say. His intelligent wordplay and consistently clean production make this an extremely enjoyable listen if you can live with the auto-tune's omnipresence(for the most part). If he is just, "Another imposter on a major label roster," then it's fair to say he's as good an actor as we're going to get this year. An honest and thoroughly well done album.

RATING: 8.2/10