The latest releases reviewed.
ALBERT HAMMOND JR
¿Cómo Te Llama?
Rough Trade
****
While other members of The Strokes have spent the last couple of years playing happy families with their respective partners, Albert Hammond Jr has been making hay as a solo artist. ¿Cómo Te Llama? (What's Your Name?)is a more confident effort than his debut, though it's again packed with hummable hooks and catchy choruses.
The songs have an air of familiarity, but the fuzzy-haired LA native and his three-man band know when to change tack and shift things up a notch. He's less afraid to take chances with his voice this time round, so there's a bit of reggae, summer pop and classic rock added for good measure, all delivered with assurance and vitality. The Strokes will be back with a fourth album. Until then, Hammond Jr is in a league of his own.
www.albert hammondjr.com
BRIAN KEANE
BECK
Modern Guilt
XL
****
Beck Hansen has latterly been on the receiving end of the kind of acclaim once afforded to Prince. A true talent, certainly, but, really, hasn't he left his best days behind him? Heading to a new record label often invigorates an artist: do they have something to prove or have they hoarded the best of their recent material in order to make a good impression? Whatever the reason, Modern Guiltis Beck's best album since 2002's Sea Change.
While by no means as introspective ( Sea Changewas informed by the end of a serious relationship), Modern Guiltborrows some of its musical themes. Yet this is no retread; Beck mixes classic pop traits with astute nods to Odelay, Mutationsand Midnite Vultures. The result is self-plagiarism of the highest order, set alongside rather cute, of-the-moment touches.
TONY CLAYTON-LEA
Download tracks: Replica, Chemtrails, Profanity Prayers
Download tracks: GfC, You Won't Be Fooled By This
THE SUGARS
The Curse of The Sugars
Bad Sneakers
On paper, The Sugars hint at a pink confectionary rush of rockabilly pop. If only. The bequiffed boy/girl threesome promise so much, but on 10 songs out of 11 they fail to deliver. Each listen convinces you that you might have seen The Sugars playing a suburban pub on a wet Tuesday. OTT amateurishness can be forgiven as over-enthusiasm, but this lot sound like they've just shuffled off the Britain's Got Talentstage. Much of this is due to the blues warbling of Matt Bolton. His karaoke-king shouting is plain unlistenable and hollow. Monsters, a kitschy pop spool, is the sole chink of light, but what's truly scary is this album's direness.
[ www.thesugars.co.ukOpens in new window ]
SINÉAD GLEESON
Download track: Monsters
SHEARWATER
Rook
Matador
**
From 1999 to 2006, these Texans rode the contrast between Jonathan Meiburg's Art Garfunkel choirboy and Will Sheff's alt.country stoner. Since 2006, however, Meiburg has been left in sole charge of songwriting and vocal duties. Palo Santo, the first album under the new dispensation, saw Meiburg fashion another dichotomy all by his lonesome: ye olde mournful Garfunkel versus ye newe Hey You-style tortured shrieker. Unfortunately, this mildly rewarding experiment has hardened into a full-blown methodology. Not that melodramatic mood swings don't chime with Rook'seco-apocalyptic concerns, but they get a tad predictable a tad quickly. And Meiburg's endless recycling of certain minor-key chord progressions doesn't help relieve the tedium. Shearwater could be a formidable proposition (just listen to the brilliant Century Eyes) but they need to transcend this black-and-white sadcore cartoon, and fast. www.shearwatermusic.com
DARAGH DOWNES
Download tracks: Rooks, Century Eyes
WOLF PARADE
At Mount Zoomer
Sub Pop
**
Montreal's Wolf Parade earned attention and praise in 2005 for their euphoric, ramshackle and spirited debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary. However, it seems any bright ideas that came up between then and now were squirreled away by band members for their own side projects, such as Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs.
At Mount Zoomeris a sorry, disjointed, tiresome affair, an album running on empty when it comes to inspiration and imagination, but keen all the same to extend workmanlike rhythms and pulses to epic proportions. A run of six- and seven-minute indie-pop songs is always proof that a band just don't know when to stop. Indeed, there comes a time in every band's life when kooky, off-kilter grooves and sounds can't compensate for a lack of decent tunes and arrangements. By the time the album comes to a halt, you'll probably regard these vocal yelps as cries for help.
[ www.myspace.com/wolfparadeOpens in new window ]
JIM CARROLL
Download tracks: Language City
