You Me At Six - Sinners Never Sleep

You Me At Six have steadily grown in popularity since the release of debut album Take Off Your Colours and then further more with its follow up, 2010’s Hold Me Down, as well as the in-between albums single, “Rescue Me”, featuring uh...Chiddy Bang (whoever that is?!).

There were rumours that Sinners Never Sleep was to be a heavier affair than the previous two record that had seen You Me At Six lumped in some pop-punk, emo category, unfairly the band had said. Sinners Never Sleep isn’t heavier though, in fact, it is probably softer and almost more ballad(y) than previous effort Hold Me Down. Lead single “Loverboy” is You Me At Six by numbers, with hints of a rock attitude in the guitar but with singer Josh Franceschi predictably drawing his female fans to sing-a-long with the type of anthemic chorus that the band have tried and tested so often that they have it down to a tea now. “This Is The First Thing” and “Crash” are your stereotypical slow dredges of American soft rock, we’ve heard this all before, boy is emotionally hurt, so boy writes song about it and musically it is so middle ground, so Wind-up Records meets well, Simple Plan, how very unimaginative and contrived.

There are sparks when you think “Yes, this is it, they've got it”. There is a cracking guitar riff on “Time Is Money” that recalls the southern blues sound of perhaps Every Time I Die, but even that is spoilt by a From Autumn To Ashes (or A Day To Remember if you are looking for a more recent reference) breakdown that shows clearly that at this point in their careers, You Me At Six don’t know who they want to be.

To put it simply, if you liked the first two albums, you will probably love this. If you expect more from music, avoid because this is nothing new.

2.5 / 5

www.youmeatsix.co.uk

Remember Remember - The Quickening

From the record label of Mogwai, Rock Action Records (A label that I thought was only for the distribution of Mogwai’s albums until now) come Remember Remember and their second album “The Quickening”.

Very much like Mogwai, Remember Remember have their feet firmly dipped in the post-rock side of music remaining on this release at least, vocal-less. Focusing on one melody, they entwine others, throwing in every instrument including the kitchen sink at times building a wall of sound, but unlike their contemporaries (Explosions In The Sky, etc), they do not build to predictable crescendo’s nor do they achieve this through the use of meandering beautiful guitar lines. Tracks like “Hey Zeus” and “One Happier” achieve this sense of originality with classical sensabilities, more eager to rely on violins and pianos rather than drums and guitar, while songs like “Ocean Potion” are drenched in an Asian influence with sweet xylophone-like sounds recalling Brian Eno and Mike Oldfield.

It would be easy to lump Remember Remember with a whole host of bands, Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, maybe Sigúr Rós and even Battles in part but that is where Remember Remember seem to be ahead of the game, using a whole host of the mainstays of a strange genre and mixing them with a more classical use of music to create something not only original and worth listening to, but at the same time, a wonderful collection of inspiring songs.

4 / 5

www.myspace.com/rememberremember

Mogwai - Earth Division EP

The days of Mogwai being a fully fledged post-rock band have been long dead, probably since the release of glorious Mr Beast with its follow ups The Hawk Is Howling and Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, soaked in so many influences that Mogwai grew into a sound that fit their name only, a culmination of experience and talent.

The Earth Division EP continues on the ground that Mogwai have treaded lately. Opener ‘Get To France’ is a piano based track with underlying violin orchestration that nods towards operatic geniuses like Beethoven, rather than the rock and soundtrack influences that Mogwai wore on their sleeves previously. ‘Hound Of Winter’ is a slow melodic plucked guitar focused track with almost sighed vocals that plays its hand at some form of laidback folk. ‘Drunk and Crazy’ is the Mogwai that we would more expect today, a quick upbeat electronic bass line, with the band are at the height of their soundtrack prowess here, mixing rock sensibilities with an almost dance music feel before cutting back the swell to show off their orchestral talents once more. ‘Does This Always Happen’ is almost post-rock by numbers, a basic guitar melody repeated and repeated while clever instrumental touches are added behind and around it, and while it doesn’t reach a predictable crescendo, it does so to its benefit recalling the fantastic work that Mogwai created for The Fountain soundtrack.

The Earth Division EP shows why bands should be allowed to create their fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth album with Mogwai continuing to craft their own sound, a portrait of a mixture of genres. Post-rock bands watch out, these are the dizzying heights that you should all want to reach and with this EP, Mogwai are once again raising the bar higher.

4 / 5

www.mogwai.co.uk

Fionn Regan - 100 Acres of Sycamore

Given the success of The End of History, the mercury award nominated album that saw Fionn Regan rise from the shadow of obscurity and into the limelight with the media spouting the usual "next Dylan" nonsense, it was almost inevitable that Regan would drop the ball on its follow up The Shadow of an Empire, and he did just that creating an album that marked a swift change, more electric and quicker in pace but losing Regans uncanny ability to pen a fantastically memorable lyric in the process. Regan's third album 100 Acres of Sycamore therefore is the perfect place for the record to be put straight and for Regan to get his foot back in the doorway of a room filled with the fantastic singer-songwriters around today.

100 Acres of Sycamore is a return to the sound that made Fionn such an unstoppable force from 2006 onwards. The album titled opener is full of atmosphere, a slow burner that broods with orchestration taking the forefront rather than the single bright guitar we would have seen from The End of History and while it isn't perhaps the horse out of the gate start to an album we would want, it is wonderful to listen to. Dogwood Blossom meanwhile harks back to the simple production that served Fionn well in the past with a beautifully contemplative acoustic guitar melody while vocally, there is just a slight hint of reverb that creates that spine tingling feeling that few can create these days. But they are just rare moments in an album that is too eager to just stay in first gear, while The End of History and even despite its flawed The Shadow of an Empire had personality, 100 Acres of Sycamore comes across as a dross, droney uninspired set of twelve songs that you would not expect from such a talent. Let us all hope for Fionn Regan's sake that his fans forgive such a dire excuse of a record.

1/5

www.fionnregan.com

Fight The Bear - Dead Sea Fruit

Many bands forget the importance of local media, hedging their bets on getting mainstream acceptance from the likes of Radio One. This is where many bands go wrong. I first heard Fight The Bear on Shropshire Radio, who were celebrating the fact that their hometown band had gained inclusion into the T In The Park festival line-up, who wouldn't be proud of that, local boys done good.

'Dead Sea Fruit', the terribly named full length record is the home of many of the tracks those who went to T In The Park would have heard. 'No Soldier', the radio friendly single from the record is the biggest stand-out track here, a laid-back ska track (think more The Police on a downer than Less Than Jake here). A brilliantly penned track about not understanding the war and the reasons to fight, it's you're usual punk "why can't we just get along" sort of song, but with a more sombre attitude than we would hear from our American counterparts. It also has some lovely musical touches on the chorus that really make it a delight to listen to, little vocal melodies overdubbed later with a lead guitar melody that works fantastically - definitely one to be listened to rathered than described.
'Moon' treads on the ground cover by the much missed (in my mind anyway) Farse, mixing that bright fun stereotypical ska guitar riff but mixing it with a hard, heavy, I'm going to rip off your face type of distorted guitar riff.
While 'We've Got It All' does exactly what every final song on an album should do, bringing the tone right back down into the sombre mood that 'No Soldier' create before bringing out the big guns and proving (if they hadn't already) that Fight The Bear are a band that can pen a chorus.

'Dead Sea Fruit' isn't without it's flaws though, and they tend to be heavy one's. Vocally, the band work better when they are on the more downbeat section of their sound but it just so happens that the majority of this album is upbeat. Musically at times, they tend to fall into a cliché ska sound confused with mainstream rock aspirations, which brings you to the assumption that they are just a band by numbers with a desperate need for a great producer - a very wrong assumption and one that they need to address themselves because it is clear with the likes of 'No Soldier' that Fight The Bear could really be onto something. One's to watch, definitely.

3 / 5

www.myspace.com/fightthebear

Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Last Smoke Before The Snow Storm

Television. Bloody fantastic idea, but then what’s the point when there’s nothing decent on, and more especially, when there is nothing informative on. That’s how I used to feel, but television does have its uses, and it’s shown its uses through my discovery of Benjamin Francis Leftwich late one night on channel four talking about his forthcoming album, ‘Last Smoke Before The Snow Storm’, but is his album really worth harping about on the old rubbish box, will television and its constant useless misinformation let me down again?

I think I need to get this straight right away, ‘Last Smoke Before The Snow Storm’ is hardly a mainstream music media monster, to this day I am confused as to why such a program focused solely on this one release was aired over perhaps I don’t know, some bollocks release by The Wanted or if we are going down the folk roots which Leftwich implies with his music, the massively popular Mumford & Sons, but there we go.

Opening track ‘Pictures’ focuses very much around Leftwich’s vocals, deep, reverb friendly, think M Ward but more radio friendly and you pretty much get it. The song is simple in its structure, a quietly picked guitar melody while Leftwich hauntingly sings such lines as, “If you find faith in your parents God, don’t be afraid to point flaws in it”. It’s only in the chorus that things pick up, and even that is only ever so slightly, with hushed ooooh’s soothing their way into your ears. It’s perhaps song writing at its best, with Leftwich not needing to scream in your face to get your attention, the sparseness of his style draws you in, convincing you to keep hushed and listen intently to every lyric sung and every guitar string plucked, brilliant.

‘Box of Stones’, the main single from the album, is very much a change of aesthetic from ‘Pictures’. The bright, summery guitar melody creating a lush counter balance to Leftwich’s at times, dreary voice (I say this in a complimentary way). The song itself has a fuller sound; violins lightly tickle their way into the backing track swelling at the correct times for a spine tingling sensation. For the first time, female vocals are prevalent mimicking Leftwich has he sings through his first real catchy chorus lyrically, “I am young, I am yours, I am free”, if this doesn’t attract the attention of those young heart-broken folky kids, then I don’t know what will.

‘Atlas Hands’ is yet another stand-out track (and there are a whole lot more that I won't mention in fear of boring you), a tale of travel and of remembered love. Once again, fitting with Leftwich’s sound, it’s quietly done. A simple almost country-esque strummed guitar maintains the base of the track – no drums are ever found here – with the occasional picked lead guitar coloured over the top to bring out the beautiful melody on display here. Female vocals make another appearance here but late on mimicking Leftwich again as he sings, “I’ve got a plan, I’ve got an atlas in my hands”, if you were dumb enough to ignore the rest of the track, this is the part that will prick your ears up, the high female vocals working in complete order with Leftwich’s deep vocals, complimenting them.

I can imagine my mother listening to ‘Last Smoke Before The Snow Storm’ and telling me that it’s suicide music, such is the downbeat nature of it. I can also imagine one specific friend telling me that it’s pretentious and that it’s middle class music. That’s the great thing about music though, it’s all opinion, and for me, ‘Last Smoke Before The Snow Storm’ has everything I want in a modern album with no real skip-able tracks (which is very rare, most albums have tracks that we can take or leave). Leftwich clearly wears his heart on his sleeve lyrically and vocally, emotion pours out of him, this makes it difficult not to find this release endearing. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifMusically, perhaps it isn’t adventurous, he’s hardly going to be compared to virtuoso bands like Battles but it does the job it was no doubt written to do, underpinning the emotion shown in the vocals, with music that is slow, spacious, but above all, moving for his listeners.

‘Last Smoke Before The Snow Storm’ paints a bleak picture, but it’s an absolutely stunning one. Don’t download this album, buy it, Leftwich deserves that much for this masterpiece and I guarantee that you won’t regret it.

5 / 5

www.benjaminfrancisleftwich.com

Dry The River - No Rest

There aren't many bands that I follow intently to see where they are playing and if they have a new release out yet, in fact, I can count those bands on one hand but Dry The River are one of those bands which given their output, so far a couple of self-released EPs as well as free EPs for those on their mailing list, is pretty impressive, at least in my eyes (having said that, being a fan of the band, that's probably expected).

Their latest single 'No Rest' is released via download or, if you're a bit of a collector like me, a 7" vinyl complete with a postcard signed by the band. 'No Rest' is effectively relatively different from the Dry The River we've heard up until this point. Firstly, the production has been upped considerably and they sound fantastic because of it. Musically, while their previous tracks had a folk maturity to them, 'No Rest' has this alongside a mainstream maturity which see's the band almost taking a leaf from the likes of Muse and Biffy Clyro with an epic orchestral chorus complete with repeated lyrics; "I loved you in the best way possible" giving it grandiose sensabilities in abundance. I can already imagine hearing on some sports advert for the BBC.

Dry The River's previous material, while fantastic, could be criticised for being somewhat downbeat, meandering along Bob Dylan-esque depressed history inspired story telling, almost alienating themselves to one type of fan but 'No Rest' see's the band up the ante with a brilliant pop take on modern folk and it isn't going to be long before Radio One pick this song up and the band go far.

With the release of this single, Dry The River have just become my official tip for a band who are going to become bigger than massive.

5 / 5

http://www.drytheriver.net/

http://www.townsend-records.co.uk/Dry+The+River