Demob Happy

Micah Blues and Red Rivers 7/10 Micah Blue Smaldone is a former punk scenester from New England who has moved on to sparse, rootsy folk. ‘The Red River‘, his fourth solo record, is dominated by meditative, neo-traditional acoustica with an eye for theatre. While intimate in scale it much less personal than, say, Bon Iver, [...]

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Season of bad will 7/10 I borrowed ‘A Season In The West’ on the recommendation of my mother-in-law [insert predictable joke here], who suggested I might find in it interesting parallels with Rose Tremain’s ‘The Road Home‘ which deals with similar themes. Both books concentrate on the migrant experience of London life, ‘The Road Home’ [...]

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FIRST PUBLISHED AT THE LINE OF BEST FIT Exile on ’25th Street’ 8.5/10 ‘NYC‘ is Kieran Hebden’s (aka Four Tet) fourth collaboration with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid and while I won’t pretend that I have heard the other three, the word in the blogosphere is that this is the most equal of their partnerships, [...]

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Breezy brilliance from casual genius 8/10 FIRST PUBLISHED AT THE LINE OF BEST FIT Arthur Russell’s ‘Love Is Overtaking Me‘ compiles previously unreleased material from the critically regarded but somehow commercially overlooked artist’s archive. Ranging from Dylanesque folk, country and angular art pop from the 1970s through his final home recordings before death in 1991, [...]

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A World Apart 6.5/10 FIRST PUBLISHED AT THE LINE OF BEST FIT Returning from the nu-disco of Hercules and Love Affair, ‘Another World‘ finds Antony & The Johnsons revisiting the themes and cabaret moods of Mercury-winning breakthrough, ‘I Am A Bird Now‘. Having such a singular singing style is both a gift and a burden: [...]

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Ten past three 5/10 The release of ‘3:10 to Yuma‘, coinciding with that of ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford‘, got some critics excited about the re-birth of the Western. While two films from Hollywood in one year hardly signifies a renaissance, Ed Harris’ 2008 Western ‘Appaloosa’ certainly suggests there is [...]

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Gang Gang goes bang 8.5/10 FIRST PUBLISHED AT THE LINE OF BEST FIT Long-time darlings of New York’s ultra-hip, art-conscious underground music scene, Gang Gang Dance look braced to make a wider breakthrough with their new album ‘Saint Dymphna‘, released in the UK on Warp. Like their contemporaries Out Hud, Gang Gang Dance makes a [...]

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Conversational skills 7.5/10 Saint Etienne have occupied a particular niche in British indie, long flirting with the mainstream but never quite breaking into it, while maintaining a certain fashionable credibility. Marrying a 60s (French) pop sensibility to post-acid house dance beats, Saint Etienne were committed to the ideal of the 3-minute ‘pure pop’ song. ‘London [...]

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An exact science 8.5/10 In ‘Dear Science’ TV On The Radio have finally delivered on the early promise of their EP ‘Young Liars’ with the dazzling art-rock album they’ve long threatened but somehow neglected to deliver. Although ‘Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes‘ and ‘Return To Cookie Mountain‘ had some great individual songs, overall I found [...]

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