Vague Follow Up Post #1 - Tall Ships

Well, I have since received said EP in the post and it's as awesome as expected, accompanied with a free poster as well.

Some lovely person called Matt who I may or may not know (sorry, either way) posted a link to a live video which is worth sharing. So I will:

Blam

Enjoy.

Plastic Beach

So I got this album the other day, pretty much the first big album of 2010, for me at least. I don't what has happened to me, but I feel as if I've reached the stage where if it sells in HMV it doesn't interest me, but if it's harder to get hold of I'd rather not bother.

Either way, this album came pretty much out of the blue, albeit with the heavily previewed single "Stylo" complete with awesome video. The single itself, however, possessed the distinct side effect of making me want to listen to lots more Mos Def. Lots and lots.

But before I get onto that its time to listen to the album itself. Its pitched somewhere between the zany Blur-like experimentation of Gorillaz and the polished conceptualisation of Demon Days. There are colloborations yes, including a verse-long cameo from (whatever happened to?) Snoop Dogg, which, as I read somewhere else, is possibly the best music he's made in a decade.

Others included are the aforementioned Mos Def, The Fall's Mark E. Smith (As opposed to Mark E. Smith's The Fall) and a rather pedestrian Clash reformation between Paul Simonon and Mick Jones. And many more.

The only danger here is that Plastic Beach is so colloboration heavy that 2-D's (or rather, Albarn's) vocals occur so infrequently that you forget its a Gorillaz album at all. Upcoming single "Superfast Jellyfish" could well be just the last in a long line of crazy collaborations by both De La Soul and Gruff Rhys.

What's happening here then, what with the dramatic shift between albums as well as the change of production (Albarn himself here, taking over from Dangermouse on Demon Days and Dan The Automator on Gorillaz), there's a danger of this virtual band losing their soul.

While you can hardly accuse them of running out of ideas, as the way this band are marketed and performed is still as startingly original as they were when they first came to prominense almost a decade ago, there's a danger of the gimmick taking over.

That said, the vast majority of this album is absolutely fantastic, with "Stylo", "Empire Ants", "Plastic Beach" and "On Melancholy Hill" all brilliant tracks in their own right, there's something vaguely wrong.

I would suggest it could perhaps be Albarn and Hewlett's loss of enthusiasm in this project coming across here. Both claimed that Demon Days would be the last Gorillaz album and Monkey essentially their last colloboration, whilst we, as fans screamed and protested the injustice as much as we did beg for "More films like the Matrix". Luckily, we have spared quite what we wished for this time, and there is more than enough here to satisfy those who have been with the group from the beginning.

It just all feels a bit... half-hearted.

Still, enough for a 7/10.

Video - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll

The latest Yeah Yeah Yeahs' track, which I've had stuck in my head for days, from their excellent 3rd album It's Blitz.

Watching a back, doesn't the werewolf look a bit like a certain newly dead celebrity? I dont mean Farrah Fawcett...

Enjoy, and tomorrow I will have a very special (for me) live review.

Video: Kasabian - Underdog

So Kasabian are back again, after that pretty dodgy second album. I'd pretty much swore to myself that I would never bother with them again, but this track, having featured on so many TV shows and adverts, has re-kindled my curiousity.

The big riffs and empty, vaguely confrontational quasi-revolutionary lyrics take me all the way back to 2004, and buying their first album is WHSmiths (ouch).

Anyway, I've not heard anything too hot from the rest of the album but I'll definitely check it out now, because this song is amazing.

Video: Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (Live)

If we could pretend it's 2008, and that I am bang up to date rather than hopefully out of touch?

Thanks.

Video HIT

Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down


This is the new single from the Mystery Jets, from their latest album, Twenty One. Not to be confused with that band, Three Doors Down, or that decade, the 80s.

PS: I'll write some more crap soon.

Video: We Are Scientists - After Hours

Ahead of releasing their second major-label LP Brain Thrust Mastery on March 17th, We Are Scientists, now short of original drummer Michael Tapper, have released the video for their next single "After Hours" here.

While the video is an almost typical comical WAS take, it doesn't seem to be as funny as, say "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt". And while the song is in the same vein as the majority of their consistent, yet could-do-better debut, it lacks the proper pop hooks that ran all way through With Love and Squalor.

Don't get me wrong, I look forward to hearing the new album, and definately on seeing them tour again, I can't help but feel a little bit dissapointed by this.

Even after a couple of listens, this track seems to drift uncomfortably between contemporary US Indie and something All American Rejects would have written. Okay, maybe I went a bit too far there.

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