Unfortunately your reviewer arrived late to an almost full to bursting Academy, missing the Sacred Animals and most of Gorgeous Colours. From what I saw of the latter, they played a radio-friendly brand of pop/rock with occasional trumpet. O Emperor were accompanied by a string quartet, alongside some backing singers/percussionists. With five members in the band this made for a lot of people on stage! Despite not being the most charismatic of bunches their Frames-style rock ambled along agreeably in a laid-back, blissed out way, songs like December and Sedalia working well. As the gig wore on they appeared to become a little more precious, summoning influences like Jeff Buckley and Muse, though the ensuing tedium was lifted by single Don Quixote. The music was good in the main with some nice harmonies (Fleet Foxes-style) but something didn’t quite connect, at times the band appeared locked in their own little world, unaware of the crowd. I fear the aforementioned crowd will disagree with me though…
Monday, April 18, 2011
Concert Review: O Emperor – The Academy, Dublin, April 15th 2011
Unfortunately your reviewer arrived late to an almost full to bursting Academy, missing the Sacred Animals and most of Gorgeous Colours. From what I saw of the latter, they played a radio-friendly brand of pop/rock with occasional trumpet. O Emperor were accompanied by a string quartet, alongside some backing singers/percussionists. With five members in the band this made for a lot of people on stage! Despite not being the most charismatic of bunches their Frames-style rock ambled along agreeably in a laid-back, blissed out way, songs like December and Sedalia working well. As the gig wore on they appeared to become a little more precious, summoning influences like Jeff Buckley and Muse, though the ensuing tedium was lifted by single Don Quixote. The music was good in the main with some nice harmonies (Fleet Foxes-style) but something didn’t quite connect, at times the band appeared locked in their own little world, unaware of the crowd. I fear the aforementioned crowd will disagree with me though…
Friday, April 15, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Album Review: Lloyd Cole – Bad Vibes
This was where my once unswerving loyalty to Lloyd Cole began to waver. In a change of tack from his excellent solo work up till now, he enlisted producer Adam Peters, Bob Clearmountain on mixing duties and attempted to update his sound with modern-sounding guitars and “programming”. The result is a most un-Lloyd Cole sounding album. Opener Morning Is Broken is a fairly strong descending melody, but there are distracting beats through the song which don’t work too well. The spectre of late-period Beatles hangs over So You’d Like To Save The World, also the rock anthem My Way To You, and especially Fall Together. Elsewhere, it sounds like his well of inspiration is running dry on tracks like the Amazing Grace mimicking Holier Than Thou, while Wild Mushrooms is a machine-driven moody experiment best forgotten. Love You So What has the kitchen-sink thrown in, guitars, keyboards, a danceable beat and even a cello. It sounds how that reads, ie doesn’t quite work. Too Much of a Good Thing is a rare beast here, a swooping guitar part not ruined by the pervasive beats and cluttered production. The album is nothing if not diverse, Mister Wrong is one of the few songs not smothered by over-production to allow a gentle tune to creep through, while Seen The Future is nothing short of Lloyd doing T.Rex’s Children of the Revolution! It finishes with the glacial crawl that is Can’t Get Arrested which can’t decide what it wants to be, taking eight minutes to do so. Unfortunately this album never really rises above the over-cooked production and must go down as one of Lloyd Cole’s weakest albums.
Friday, April 1, 2011
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