The Stone Roses - All For One

The Stone Roses - All For One

New Single

Twenty two years on from the release of Second Coming, Manchester's The Stone Roses have returned, and the relieving news is, the song is excellent.

While the lyrics may get a bit repetitive with a mantra of "All for one / One for all," whatever is lacking lyrically is more than made up for in Squire's guitar riff. A heavily late 60s inspired tune, the song is a new direction for The Stone Roses, but retains their Madchester roots. Catchy and uplifting, The Roses have produced a song that could potentially soundtrack this summer.

Was the song worth the two decade wait? For that guitar riff, arguably yes.

Feel free to judge for yourself:

The band play Marlay Park 9th July 2016

Radiohead - Burn The Witch

Radiohead - Burn The Witch

New Single

After two days of fading websites, deleted tweets, creepy postcards being sent to fans and all the internet hype you could want, Radiohead have finally put forward a new single.

Burn The Witch is the latest single from the Oxford band, being the first off their ninth album, Dawn Chorus. A haunting orchestral piece that seems uplifting, but with eerie undertones, Burn The Witch is a four minute epic, building to an unsettling climactic ending.

This is no ode to a tree, instead Radiohead have returned to their old ways of playing on our paranoia, with such uplifting lyrics such as "Avoid all eye contact / Do not react / Shoot the messenger". Tense pizzicato strings highlight that this is "a low flying panic attack."

The video is a cheery cross between Wallace & Gromit and The Wicker Man (the 1973 original that is - not the Nicholas Cage remake). With pretty pastel colours and gallows, the video is as essential as the song it compliments.

Do your soul a favour and listen to this song below

Cat's Eyes - Be Careful Where You Park Your Car

Cat's Eyes - Be Careful Where You Park Your Car

New Single

Bitter breakups and dysfunctional relationships seem to be a recurring theme in Cat's Eyes' music, as this 60s girl group inspired track continues the theme from previous singles, Drag and Chameleon Queen.

Arguably more accessible than previous singles off the band's second album, the song wears it's 60s influences on its sleeve, but with an angry edge to Zeffira's voice. The clap track and repetition of lyrics make this a catchy, enjoyable listen as Rachel Zeffira tells us we "looked a little too happy when we saw her cry"

Listen below

Ezra Furman - Songs By Others

Ezra Furman - Songs By Others

Record Store Day 2016 Release

For Record Store Day 2016, Ezra Furman & The Boy-Friends put out this covers album, which proved to be a worthwhile investment for anyone who got their hands on it. The release features seven covers by Furman of various diverse artists spanning several decades, from Little Richard to Arcade Fire.

Covers albums can be pretty hit or miss, but this definitely falls into the 'hit' category. The songs are perhaps at their best when it's just Ezra Furman and his guitar, on his takes of LCD Soundsystem's 'I Can Change' and The Replacements' 'Androgynous'. Both posses a soul-aching, stripped back beauty to them, that make them the standout tracks of the album. A live version of Jackie Wilson's '(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher' proves an uplifting euphoric ending to the record.

While not all the songs on this release are perfect - 'Good Book' proves to be pretty forgettable, while a cover of Beck's 'Devil's Haircut' is only so so - the good far outweighs the mediocre. If it's still hanging around in a record shop near you, it's absolutely worth parting with your money for.

8/10

The 1975 - I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It

The 1975 - 

I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It

Album Review

For this review, I put aside my previous feelings for The 1975 to give it an honest listen. Even with the slightly predatory name, I was willing to give The 1975 yet another chance.

To begin with, there's a pretty obvious reason why the singles are singles - they're the sort of thing anybody would happily and drunkenly dance to. The instrumental of the singles and some of the other album tracks are pretty fun and enjoyable (if you can get past Matty Healey's nasal drone - the man should seriously consider a career as a sean nós singer).

The lyrics aren't clever, but for the most part they won't give you secondhand embarrassment. Exceptions to this are song names such as 'Please Be Naked', not to mention the title track itself. (To give Please Be Naked its dues, there's no actual lyrics in the song, but the title is pretty godawful for what is a surprisingly good song). They tread the same trakcs as before - sex, in love, out of love, repeat.

The album slows down, it speeds up, it's a pretty paint by numbers affairs. There's a nice piano ballad (Please Be Naked), impressive female backing vocals (A Change of Heart) and even some cool jazz-esque stuff (If I Believe You). Borrowing from those before you isn't a bad thing, given it's pretty hard to be totally original in music, but nothing about this album feels fresh. It doesn't borrow from other songs, it just takes a song and puts a new name to it.

Many of the songs feel like covers of songs released long beforehand. Love Me is an absolute Fame rip-off but in the grand scheme of this album it's pretty good okay - not cause it's a good song, but putting it up against the rest of the album. However, the song is literally Fame. If you wanna hear this song but better, just go listen to Fame by David Bowie. A Change of Heart is a slower version of the opening to Bloc Party's I Still Remember, so much so I felt a certain shock when I didn't hear Kele Okereke's vocals come it,

Album highlights are easily the singles - Love Me, UGH!, The Sound, Somebody Else and Change of Heart, who stand out based on the fact they don't totally bore you to death. Please Be Naked is surprisingly good, and If I Believe You can probably be redeemed in the sense that it's not totally uninspired. The rest of this album is perhaps best avoided if you aren't much of a 1975 fan. At seventeen songs long, the album feels less like an enjoyable experience and more like an endurance test. By the 9th song, you'll be wondering why you didn't turn this off long ago.

If I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It has proved anything, it's that The 1975 are excellent at ripping off decent bands and musicians. Middling of the road at the best, it's not necessarily that the album is bad per say - it's simply a case that you've heard every single song done a thousand times before. Nothing new is being brought to the table, and so the album struggles to hold attention. The songs aren't bad, just bland.

3/10

Last Shadow Puppets - Everything You've Come To Expect

 Everything You've Come To Expect

Last Shadow Puppets - New Single

The latest single from Alex Turner and Miles Kane's Last Shadow Puppets is a hazy, 60s influenced song that couldn't be in greater contrast to first single 'Bad Habits'

The song reflects the shift of Turner and Kane's influences from English music to that from across the Atlantic - lyrics such as 'Hotel room / Holy Bible' definitely holds imagery which would be far more associated with America than Sheffield or Liverpool.

The song is a retrospective, hazy sounding tune, featuring vocal harmonies between both Turner and Kane,as opposed to the solo vocals from Miles Kane that featured on Bad Habits. with strings featuring towards the middle of the song, it sounds sun soaked, like a lazy summer's afternoon (for want of a more original simile).

It may not sound like their first album, but with eight years between The Age of the Understatement and Everything You've Come To Expect, and the change in sound of the artists themselves, it was bound to happen. Still strange to think that one of the musicians behind this song penned Fake Tales of San Francisco, but an excellent song nonetheless.

The song is absolutely worth a listen, and is fairly essential for any fan of Arctic Monkeys and/or Miles Kane

Listen below:

Cat's Eyes - Drag

Cat's Eyes - Drag

New Single

The second single released ahead of second album, Treasure House, Drag is an endearing song that lands somewhere between 60s girl group pop and dream pop.

Rachel Zeffira's vocals float effortlessly over an array of classical instruments in a song about a perhaps less-than-advisable-love. Zeffira's vocals sound as heavenly as ever, over elegant woodwind and piano.

Even if the song isn't a huge leap forward stylistically for Cat's Eyes, and would sound totally at home on 2012's debut, it's still a dreamlike experience to hear.

EDIT:

Well, if there were any doubts about the implications of an abusive relationship in the lyrics, the video certainly left nothing to doubt about.

Watch the rather interesting and violent video below:

Cat's Eyes album 'Treasure House' comes out 3rd June