Arctic Monkeys - The Car
‘Hurrah, Arctic Monkeys are back!’
‘This is rubbish, I want the previous version of Arctic Monkeys back.’
…has basically been the commentary of certain fans upon every release by the group, barring second album Favourite Worst Nightmare, which bore enough resemblance to their seminal debut to pass their muster.
Better still, there are now two generations of fans (those that were enthralled by Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not and the newer breed who jumped aboard for AM) who can rage together.
The clue was in the first album title, people.
Fortunately, Alex Turner and his friends don’t care, never have and nor should they; they are artists, and art by democracy isn’t a viable concept.
Yet there was some allowance made for the sci-fi lounge jazz of previous album Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino in the hope that it was a one-off and they’d soon come back to the rollicking R&B riffs of AM. Not a bit of it.
While they haven’t exactly doubled down (The Car is, if nothing else, more accessible than its predecessor), they’ve moved on yet again.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/10/review-arctic-monkeys-car/
Pastel - Isaiah EP
When your reviewer saw Pastel supporting Afflecks Palace in autumn last year it was clear they had the ambition and soundscapes to carve out their own niche, but the future was unclear.
One year on – with relentless touring, a clutch of singles and a prestigious opening slot on the bill at Knebworth with Liam Gallagher – much has changed.
Yes, Pastel sound undeniably like the 1990s, but they don’t try and hide it, therefore it feels churlish to admonish them for it.
Plus (and it’s not fashionable to say this) the 1990s were actually pretty good, and it depends on where you draw your influences from.
The five-piece have chosen wisely: rather than singing chirpily about fish and chips, Pastel have channeled something altogether more timeless, with this EP showcasing it comprehensively.
Isaish opens with wispy, dreamy strums of the guitar before singer Jack Yates enters with a vocal that sounds like a whisper across the ocean before bolstering his larynx to sound not dissimilar to Tom Meighan.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/10/future-pastel-isaiah-ep/
The Clockworks - Live at Rough Trade, Bristol - 14th October
Armed with an album’s worth of songs in the public domain (if not an actual album itself), The Clockworks are quietly but assuredly gathering an undeniable momentum.
It helps that the songs are good, of course. Better still that they actually have Something To Say and that singer and songwriter James McGregor can rhapsodise his thoughts on 21st century society with a watertight band backing his every line with whipcrack solidity.
Fittingly, the first song opens with the line, ‘And that’s another thing…’, as the foursome fly out of the traps with Endgame, all fizzing hi-hat and crisp guitar.
‘We’re post-punk, post-truth, post-Europe, post-youth, post-modern, post-faith and God and post-post too, as music with nothing to say plays on the radio’, McGregor opines, making an immediate grab for the crowd’s attention.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/10/review-the-clockworks-bristol/
Maximo Park - Bristol Academy, 10th October 2022
While their counterparts from the mid-2000s have either split up (then reformed), gone into semi-retirement with an album every five years, or moved on to other less successful musical styles, Maximo Park have remained steadfast.
A loyal fanbase has been treated to a heady catalogue of material largely of generally the same style, yet of a consistently high quality. As such, a Greatest Hits (or, more accurately, Singles) tour seems long overdue.
Paul Smith informs us from the stage that the idea for this tour came about because a new song, ‘Great Art’, had no album to call a home, yet the design for these shows (the Singular Tour) seems geared around the release of a compilation album, though none has been forthcoming.
Smith alludes to the fact that the cost of vinyl is prohibitive these days, which may go some way to explain the missing piece of the jigsaw.
Regardless, the shows are an excuse for Smith and his bandmates (Duncan Lloyd on lead guitar, Tom English on drums, plus touring members Jemma Freese and Andrew Lowther) to revel in nostalgia, and Smith makes reference to knowing Lloyd and English for 20 years.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/10/review-maximo-park-live-at-bristol-o2-academy/
The Enemy - Live at Bristol Academy, 1st October 2022
Although now unfairly maligned as ‘landfill indie’ – which inevitably led to them being lumped alongside the likes of The Fratellis and The Pigeon Detectives – Coventry’s The Enemy actually started life as social commentators in the vein of The Jam, Blur or The Clash.
Furthermore, their debut album – 2007’s We’ll Live And Die In These Towns – had quite the impact 15 years ago; UK Number 1 with a Thriller-esque seven singles were lifted from it, as well as impressive support slots and shows of their own.
Unfortunately, that debut proved to be a one-off, with no subsequent release coming anywhere near the quality or impact. Indeed, time has not been kind to The Enemy, and nowadays the trio (expanded to a quartet onstage) are regarded as little more than a ‘lad’s band’ which, based on the demographic of the crowd for this sold-out show, isn’t entirely unfair.
Yet this tour (billed as a reunion but based around playing the first album in full) offers the opportunity for reappraisal (as these things often do) even if we are now at the stage of reunion gigs for bands you didn’t know had broken up in the first place.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/10/review-the-enemy-bristol/
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cool It Down
It’s been a duller world without the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Despite their close association with the heralded New York rock scene at the turn of the century, Karen O, Nick Zinner and Brian Chase had very little in common with The Strokes et al in terms of attitude.
Where Casablancas and co. radiated traditional rock star cool (sunglasses, smoking etc), O and her bandmates found their natural home in exuberance and showpersonship.
Of course, with her trademark leather jackets and fingerless gloves O made her own version of cool, but the definition of what makes something ‘cool’ is for another time.
In the two decades since, Yeah Yeah Yeahs have kept that reputation and built on it. Despite a paucity of albums (Cool It Down is only their fifth and their first in nine years) they’ve largely delivered on that promising start, unlike many of their peers.
Even if the albums in that time haven’t been to everyone’s taste, they came with a cast-iron guarantee of at least one classic single – ‘Gold Lion’, ‘Zero’ and ‘Sacrilege’ (among others) will have to make room in their club for the latest entry: ‘Burning’.
Built upon the foundations of a Motown piano loop, impatient strings and snarling, intermittent chords from Zinner, it’s a wonderful piece of indie-gospel rock.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/09/review-yeah-yeah-yeahs-cool/
Suede - Autofiction
‘Autofiction is our punk record. No whistles and bells. Just the five of us in a room with all the glitches and fuck-ups revealed; the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess.’
So speaks Suede frontman Brett Anderson of their new album, but if you’re expecting a huge divergence from the trademark Suede sound it’s best to manage expectations here. The key word in the above sentence is ‘our’: it’s the band’s version of punk – ethos, but not sound.
As much as Anderson might like to think he and his group are capable of ragged punk (and some dispensation must be allowed, they are promoting their ninth studio album, after all), they’re too long in the tooth for that now.
The musicianship found within Autofiction is simply too good, too proficient to be presented as snarling or in-your-face. It is Another Suede album. And a very good one too.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/09/review-suede-autofiction/
Interview - Mike Joyce
For obvious reasons, one classic Smiths album is on everyone’s lips at the moment, but in other news (there is other news if you look hard enough), it’s been 35 years since the release of the band’s final album Strangeways, Here We Come.
Arguably their finest hour (although in a short career with no discernible low points, that’s subjective), its broad palette of sounds saw the foursome burn brighter than ever. Sadly, it would be defined as a posthumous release in late 1987, an epitaph for one of the decade’s best bands.
While it would be uncharacteristic of Stephen Patrick Morrissey to commemorate the event – and Johnny Marr rarely, if ever, looks back – one member of the group has opted for an unusual, but incredibly worthy form of celebration.
As a patron of Manchester charity Back On Track, Mike Joyce has set up a raffle for £5 per ticket with the possibility of winning his own silver disc of the album.
Speaking with Live4ever this week, Joyce explained his reasoning, some background on the charity, how he feels about the album and much more.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/09/live4ever-the-smiths-mike-joyce/
Interview - The Beths
Out this Friday, Auckland quartet The Beths’ new album (Expert In A Dying Field) is their best and most varied yet. Where previous album Jump Rope Gazers found the group leaning into more reflective offerings to add to their by now signature bouncing riffs, Expert…builds on the more varied styles of song while expanding and harness their sound. Full of both indelible hooks and heart-wrenching inner thoughts, it’s their most complete album to date.
Denied the opportunity to properly tour Jump Rope Gazers after it’s release, the last few months have been an intensely busy period for The Beths as they’ve been balancing giving the second album it’s due while gradually and carefully turning the dial to focus on Expert In A Dying Field.
"This tour that we’re on has nearly finished and we’ve been playing the three new singles," explains main songwriter Liz Stokes to Gigwise via Zoom. "On the next round of touring of Australia and New Zealand, they’re album release shows so from then we’ll be playing much more of the new material."
"We’ve been playing the new singles but I feel like, even though it’s two years after Jump Rope Gazers came out, it still feels like a tour for that. So we’re playing a mixture of those songs and songs from the first record. I don’t want to feel like we’re skipping over it!"
https://gigwise.com/features/3426915/expert-in-a-dying-field--the-beths-in-conversation
Manic Street Preachers - Know Your Enemy - Reissue
Back in 2011, as part of the promotion for the second Manic Street Preachers’ greatest hits collection National Treasures, a rather catty strapline boldly stated: ‘No Reunions. No Comebacks. No Encores.’, a reference to the reformation of some of their peers (Blur, Pulp, The Verve) around the turn of the decade.
Although the Blackwood trio have stuck to that manifesto, steadfastly defiant in their fourth decade, they aren’t averse to plundering their legacy either.
Know Your Enemy, their sixth album (and sixth to receive the Collector’s/Anniversary edition treatment) now goes under the microscope, but rather than the usual bonus discs, accompanying tours (although tracks from Know Your Enemy have been in their set all year) etc, their most schizophrenic album has been stripped down and rebuilt as the trio originally intended.
According to the statement upon its announcement: ‘During the recording sessions, the trio got cold feet and settled on a single album that forced often conflicting ideas to sit side by side on the same record.’
The original idea was a double album of two sides: Door To The River and Solidarity and, on deciding upon the details of the reissue, James Dean Bradfield insisted on remixing the album with their long-term producer Dave Eringa.
A mammoth undertaking for both Bradfield and the listener, with 34 tracks making up the bulk of the endeavour (along with a bonus disc of demos), was it worth it for one of their middling efforts?
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/09/review-manic-street-preachers-enemy/
Interview - Moreish Idols
For creatives, it’s an old adage that the environment you inhabit affects your work.
To take two examples, David Bowie and Arctic Monkeys both produced albums which were products of their place, while The Clash’s broad spectrum of sounds was testament to the multi-cultural influences found in the capital.
Originally hailing from the sleepy coastal town of Falmouth in Cornwall, five-piece Moreish Idols’ maiden EP Float is the product of their relocation to London.
A laconic sax and guitar line eases the listener into first track ‘Hangar’ before the guitar goes frantic alongside a cowbell heralding a burst of rhythm.
Excellent drum fills and a rapid-fire vocal delivery from singer Jude Lilley cement the chaotic vibe but, unlike say Black Country, New Road, there is a cohesion and structure to the song.
Lilley’s vocals become more intimate on the lower-key but equally dense on When The River Runs Dry, with a simple but effective chiming guitar straddling the chorus.
‘W.A.M.’ is insistently jangly with the sax adding colour to an otherwise solid song, while ‘Speedboat’ demonstrates Moreish Idols’ key strength; the capacity to sound raggedly loose but controlled at the same time.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/09/live4ever-presents-moreish-idols/
Unloved - The Pink Album
David Holmes has always operated in the shadows.
Even if you don’t know his name you’ll be familiar with his work, be it producing (or more accurately, collaborating, such is the producer’s influence) with the likes of Primal Scream and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, or his ventures into films such as on the Ocean’s Eleven franchise.
More recently Holmes provided the score for the ridiculously successful TV show Killing Eve, and it’s for the show that the Belfast native is arguably best known across the pond.
Yet he wasn’t alone in that project and, along with singer Jade Vincent and musician Keefus Ciancia, he has somehow found the time to produce a third album under the moniker Unloved – but, despite it being the work of three, Holmes’ unmistakable fingertips are all over The Pink Album.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/09/review-unloved-the-pink-album/
Reading Festival 2022 - Day 2
The genre-defining lines in music are blurring all the time, and nowhere is this more evident than on the Reading & Leeds Festival line-ups.
The likes of rappers Dave and Megan Thee Stallion (both of whom made headlines on Day 1, the general consensus being that they were both defining in their own ways) can sit comfortably alongside the likes of The 1975 and Bastille.
All mainstream pop acts in their own way, but a far cry from the days of Reading Rock.
All that said, there are plenty of guitars still to be found, and Day 2 on Main Stage East (or simply, the Main Stage in old money) has a distinctly ‘indie’ tilt, with the final four reading like a backwards trip through the last ten years of the genre.
After a relatively quiet 2022 (in comparison to their Number 1 album and various degrees of hype last year), the evolution of The Lathums may have slowed in pace but they’ve quietly been going about their business of winning over hearts and minds across the festival season.
Their mid-afternoon, sun-drenched set finds them re-asserting their presence as a band of genuine quality, with both Alex Moore’s vocals (your correspondent heard ‘what a voice’ on more than one occasion) and Scott Concepcion’s lead axe skills vying for attention.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/08/arctic-wolf-alice-reading-22/
The Native - Looking Back
If you’ve been to an indie or alternative night over the last decade and a half, then the chances are it was put on by This Feeling. Their club nights across the country are legendary, with patronage from the likes of Serge Pizzorno and Noel Gallagher (no less), designed to give new and upcoming guitar bands the opportunity to showcase their skills and pick up new fans along the way. The likes of Blossoms, The Amazons, Gerry Cinnamon and Catfish and The Bottlemen were all give step-ups at certain venues along their way. So influential are the new label that they’ve also branched out into TV shows.
Yet that wasn’t enough, so earlier in the year, This Feeling announced their latest and most exciting venture yet: a new record label in conjunction with ADA Records, inspired by legendary independent imprints such as Creation and Factory. Recipients of the honour of This Feeling’s maiden release are The Native, a five-piece from one of Britain’s burgeoning hotbeds of music (no, seriously), Plymouth, with an EP of six songs clocking in at around 20 minutes.
https://gigwise.com/reviews/3426592/ep-review--the-native---looking-back
All Points East: Field Day
After a heady first day with sets from Gorillaz and IDLES among others, Day Two of the marathon All Points East Festival is handed over to Field Day, back in their East London home with some big guns of electronic music on the bill.
Carl Craig and Mr Scruff are on the more established end of the names, while Mary Anne Hobbs provided a blistering set on the 6 Music Stage (here throughout the whole festival).
Continuing their rise, Floating Points added the elegance to go with the groove, while Daniel Avery proffered a surprisingly heavy, ethereal yet break-beat filled-set over on the North Stage as the sun started to set.
But the big draws are, logically, the co-headliners. Without exception, everyone on the bill owes a debt of gratitude (at the very least) to electronic pioneers Kraftwerk, even if they opt to keep the bass levels at a minimum in comparison.
3D glasses were handed out prior to their set which, through no fault of their own, commences slightly too early with much of the first half still in broad daylight, but the effectiveness of the format is truly revealed once the sun has gone down.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/08/all-points-east-saturday-kraftwerk/
The Lounge Society - Tired Of Liberty
‘Musicians aren’t supposed to be limited to the Spotify-era choosing of genres. It’s pointlessly restrictive. We’re a band and that shouldn’t be narrowed down.’
Amen to the words of The Lounge Society (taken from my recent interview for Live4Ever), a statement that tells you all need to know about the quartet.
The young men are happy to define themselves as a guitar band (which would be churlish to deny) but other than that indulgence, they refuse to be pigeon-holed. Not an unfamiliar approach, it has to be said, but with Tired Of Liberty they’re finally in a position to walk – and therefore match – the talk.
And, through no fault of their own, there’s been a lot of talking (at least for those who haven’t caught their incendiary live shows). Debut single ‘Generation Game’ is now two years old and one senses that, having been sat on the album for a further nine months (recording took place over two weeks in November 2021), they’ve already moved on.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/08/the-lounge-society-tired-liberty/
Interview - The Lounge Society
Life comes at you pretty fast. Even faster when you’re in a young band, riding the crest of a wave of festival dates during the busiest summer for three years, with a red hot debut album burning a hole in your back pocket.
A few years ago, The Lounge Society were hatching plans to take over the world and be at the level of bands like The Strokes. Little did they know that they’d ‘soon’ be on the same bill, as the Hebden Bridge gang recently found themselves.
“It was amazing,” says guitarist Hani Paskin-Hussain of their slot at the recent Lytham Festival during an exclusive interview with Live4ever.
“Playing with The Strokes, Fontaines D.C. and Wet Leg…We kept joking and saying that we were playing with the hottest bands in the world. It was insane that we were on that bill.”
“We had a great time and it was nice hanging out with those bands. Well, Fontaines and Wet Leg, we didn’t really see The Strokes! They were in their own little area, which was fair enough. The other bands were really sound.”
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/08/interview-the-lounge-society/
Working Men’s Club - Fear Fear
After a tumultuous gestation, with three quarters of the band dispatched after one fine single (‘Bad Blood’, back in early 2019), Working Men’s Club have settled into a rhythm of their own.
Bad Blood had its merits, but its generic indie rock sound was a far cry from the stonking debut album that followed in 2020, all gigantic beats and electronica designed to be played loud. One of the albums of that year and several others. Yet its release was delayed by the pandemic.
As it turns out, the lockdowns have thus far defined Working Men’s Club. Shortly after their self-titled debut had been released, lead songwriter Syd Minskey-Sargeant started laying down ideas for album two. Like most creatives, Sargeant was influenced by his surroundings and circumstances but, locked in our own homes, he had little choice but to look inwards rather than out.
Fear Fear contains starkness that at points is overwhelmingly brutal, but is offset by ingenuity and maudlin gusto.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/07/review-working-mens-club-fear/
Jamie T - The Theory Of Whatever
Back in the mid-00s, as the digitalisation of music hit its stride and genres transferred from place cards in HMV to categories on iTunes, Jamie Treays took gleeful delight in refusing to be compartmentalised.
Not only that, his unique rap/rock/songwriter/scat (delete as appropriate) style was years ahead of its time. He won’t thank us for saying this, but he may even have been responsible for Ed Sheeran.
15 years on, Treays still refuses to be pinned down. Where other artists eventually settle into one style, on fifth album The Theory Of Whatever, Jamie T continues to prove himself as a singular talent.
The rough edges of debut Panic Prevention may long have been shaved off, but the genre-bending remains.
The urchin anthemia of comeback single ‘The Old Style Raiders’ served its main purpose – being instantly recognisable. An arms-aloft chorus preceded by a verse with more tongue-tripping than the melody can deal with, it bristles with guarded hope (‘told to fight for something you love in life’) and immediately takes its place among his classic songs (not a small group, either).
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/07/jamie-t-theory-whatever/
Two More Gems From Colorama Records
Such is the rapidity and momentum that Colorama Records are building, it’s getting harder to keep track of their output (the sign of a good label).
Last week they unveiled two more treats: Bristolian outfit Parlour released their latest sun-flecked offering ‘Love Is Expecting You’, their debut single on the label. With sparse arrangement, contented guitar lines and woozy atmospherics, it starts gently before a dramatic coda with multi-backing vocals adding to the sense of gathering oneself, if it wasn’t so darned sun-kissed. West Coast from the South West.
Meanwhile ‘Haunted’ by Eloise ploughs similar psychedelic furrows, with sparkling guitar, glistening flutes and a gentle but persistent thud of drums throughout. Featuring contributions from Andy Crofts and Ben Gordelier from The Moons/Paul Weller’s band, the London-based singer-songwriter harnesses her poetic lyrics (‘nature’s voice whispers in my ear; ‘you’ve poisoned your own mind,’) to delicate and dreamy textures, like a softer, more fragile Melody’s Echo Chamber.
Keep ‘em coming, Colorama Records.