Adult Contemporary Essentials 13.06.10

Tokyo Police Club

Champ

Memphis Industries

Tokyo Police Club's entry couldn't have been more exciting - A Lesson In Crime was an 8-song EP, full of high-energy punchy punky indie, tightly wound around bass, cheesy organ and bursts of spiky guitar. The follow-up, Elephant Shell, was a delight, taking that spit and fire and giving it a more mature grown-up feel without ruining anything. Champ, the second full-length, is more of the same - full of joy and anthemic melody, wholly 2010 in feel. The Canadian 4-piece have here started to breech the 3-minute song barrier, with great results. Standout songs include Breakneck Speed, Wait Up

and End of a Spark, songs that sound like a more indie Fratellis. Champ takes a couple of run-throughs to fully get into - some of the immediacy has gone in growing up, but it has been replaced with genuine quality.

ACE rating 8/10

Delta Spirit

History From Below

Decca

Delta Spirit almost define the can-do spirit of indie music. Their debut album, Ode To Sunshine, is an essential record that has been released and re-released as the band started to gain its audience. And that audience has been gained one fan at a time by taking the show on the road, and blowing people away nightly.

That album should be on every music fan's shelves, sounding like

The Band 40 years later - along with These United States and Centro-matic, this is America's new best new Band. One of the main benefits of that continual live experience is that the follow-up has been honed in front of audiences, and, through a process of evolution, the 11 songs here are genuinely great. Keeping the live studio sound, there is a real sense of space and energy - fortunately the band's range is maintained, rather than simply filling the album with barnstormers - Salt In The Wound is touching, aching. History From Below is another essential album from a band you have to know about.

ACE rating 9/10

Pernice Brothers

Goodbye, Killer

One Little Indian

Once upon a time, Pernice Brothers were able to put together outstanding wit, lyric writing and punchy exciting music. That time was 2001, with the World Won't End. Since then, with 2003's Yours Mine and Ours, 2005's Discover A Lovelier You, and 2006's Live a Little, the highlights have become progressively harder to find. Like Teenage Fanclub, the sound is still there (very like Teenage Fanclub in sound), the lyrics are still there, but my goodness, Joe Pernice's voice has gone. Most of this album sounds like it took him by surprise, and that he's singing a couple of keys above where he feels comfortable. This is a shame, as the songs are back to standard, but there is no way past the voice - while never the band's strongest asset, it was never a hindrance, but with this latest release it has become a distraction. Great set of songs for another band to re-record, though.

ACE rating 6/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 30.05.10

Damien Jurado

Saint Bartlett

Secretly Canadian

Damien Jurado is one of those songwriters that all songwriters know and love, but who is all-but-unknown to the public here in the UK.

With an ability to write a genuinely affecting song, and deliver it in a vulnerable, sweet voice, and then do it another 11 times on the same record, his under-recognition is unfair.

On his tenth studio album, Saint Bartlett sees him return to form after the variable Caught In The Trees. Produced by (the excellent in his own right) Richard Swift, Saint Bartlett is a bleaker, quieter more honest affair, which suits him right down to the ground - he is not an arranger, just a very very good storyteller, and there are some wonderful stories here. As a way into Damien Jurado, there are no better places to start.

ACE rating 8/10

Band of Horses

Infinite Arms

Columbia

It is hard to escape the view here that, as so often, Band of Horses gave us their best on their first record, and struggled with the follow-up. Everything All The Time was a stunning debut, with Cease To Begin retreading the same basic formula. Infinite Arms' problems can be traced to the line of the press release that is supposed to make it sound grand: "Produced by Band of Horses with additional production from Phil Ek, mixed by Dave Sardy, and recorded over a 16-month period, the songs on Infinite Arms project the essence of the different locales across America that became the setting for the recording and songwriting process behind the album." For that, read, the band have no musical direction any more and recorded anything that sounded like a song over a 1 year period… Infinite Arms is fine Americana, proving that the band can intrinsically make an ordinary song sound nice. But that is all it is.

ACE rating 5/10

Stornoway

Beachcomber's Windowsill

4AD

No-one can say I didn't try. Having heard so many glowing reviews of this band, it was hard to go in not expecting the saviours of British music. Ultimately, what Beachcomber's Windowsill provides is a nice enough set of songs - folky, poppy, like an upbeat Mumford and Sons. What it does't really provide is any substance to challenge better bands like Frightened Rabbit. There is every chance that your 50 year old uncle is dancing around his Poggenpohl kitchen to Stornoway right now, so nice and middle class does this sound - the beachcomber of the album title may well be there for a nice week in Padstow. At the end of the day, 'nice' shouldn't be a bad word to use in a review, but caution should be exercised for anyone else drawn into the hype - that's pretty much all there is in here.

ACE rating 7/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 23.05.10

Phosphorescent

Here's To Taking It Easy

Dead Oceans

Phosphorescent is based around main man Matthew Houck, and on this fifth studio album they enter a rather lovely indie folk space. Emulating Great Lake Swimmers if fronted by Iron and Wine's Sam Beam, this is laid back, harmonic and gentle - music that could have been recorded at any time in the past 40 years.

Houck's voice has a wonderful plaintive quality - strong and vulnerable at the same time. A song like We'll Be Here Soon is gorgeous, laid out like a landscape - any fan of Fleet Foxes would find a lot to love in here. Occasionally the band head into Neil Young/ The Band space (The Mermaid Parade), although it is a reflective Neil Young rather than the rock-heavy one. The band's previous album, Pride (the Willie Nelson covers album aside), was a record that took time to grow but when it did it had its hooks in everywhere. Here's To Taking It Easy is a lovely build on Pride.

ACE rating 8/10

Surfer Blood

Astrocoast

Kanine

Surfer Blood are a band from West Palm Beach, Florida, and follows the new movement in bands that hark back to a 70s sound. Here, they embrace 70s summer pop to produce a sound like Weezer mixed with Girls. The quartet also, in deriving their Weezer references, manage to sound like some Nick Hayward 80s bands. Ultimately, mixing in the trendy Afrobeat (Yeasayer, Vampire Weekend) and eclectic sounds (a bit of dosie-do here, a bit of New Romantic there, produces an uneven record - the kind of record that you'd like to like, but that fails to achieve anything memorable once the last song has gone. The band seem to have hooked into a nice wave of hype, which may do them no favours in the long run, as the music just isn't completely there yet.

ACE rating 7/10

JBM

Not Even In July

JBM

Let’s face it – even the hardest critic of hippy folk would find a lot to like in Fleet Foxes. Well, those same parts make up most of what makes Not Even In July special. Jesse Marchant, an actor turned singer-songwriter, who goes under his initials, sings in a sweet, gentle voice over relaxed lovely melody. A Canadian by birth, Not Even In July was recorded in a church studio, whose atmospherics add a gorgeous ambience to the lazily swelling dynamics and the echoes. Like fellow Canadians Great Lake Swimmers, Marchant’s music has an intimacy that reminds the listener of early Neil Young, Jackson Browne or Rickie Lee Jones. With material covering subjects such as the perfect July On The Sound, written for a dying friend, Marchant is a match for our own Stephen Fretwell – a band is used to fill out the songs without ruining their delicacy and elegance. As a first album, this is an immense small effort.

ACE rating 9/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 09.05.10

Broken Social Scene

Forgiveness Rock Record

City Slang

Broken Social Scene are an idea as much as they are a band - a collective band with no single direction and a lot of musicians, Forgiveness Rock Record sees them trim down the number to a more cohesive level, although there is never any doubt that the album is a stitched together affair. Coming at indie from the ecstatic, loosely melodic side, Broken Social Scene do provide the odd goosebump moment in their music, and occasionally a song breaks through the general drift around the various contributors' songs - here it is The Sweetest Kill, and Forced To Love: one, a lovely ballad, the other a very good indie song. It is still hard to recommend BSS to anyone who isn't already in their club. Forgiveness Rock Record is tight relative to their other work, but it is still a collection of ideas.

ACE rating 7/10

The Black Keys

Brothers

Universal

The Black Keys have undergone so much experimentation since breaking through that it was inevitable that they would get to this point. Drummer Patrick Carney's side projects and label suggested a massively interesting musical brain, while guitarist Dan Auerbach's solo work took a sidestep from the thick bluesy funky rock that the pair broke through with.

That wonderful sludgy funk is still apparent on their sixth studio album, Brothers, as it becomes apparent that the soul rock of 70s America feeds the pair a delicious backdrop. Brothers, as a title, is meant to suggest that the pair still feel like a pair, despite their meanderings. What there is a lot less of is blues, although this sounds like the Attack and Release album if it had kept going at its departures from the 'sound'. There is falsetto, Booker T-like organ, Cream-like rock, and a whole lot of soul. The pair have one of the best modern musical legacies in the 5 albums to date, and Brothers proves it is built to last.

ACE rating 9/10

Darwin Deez

Darwin Deez

Lucky Numbers

Proof, if it were needed, that the UK is still prone to giving hype time to bands that manage only to show an interesting look and a hook. The shame here is that frontman, Darwin Deez, does have an interesting voice, and the band is capable of some Vampire Weekend-like spiky rhythms, and the occasional hook (singles Radar Detector and Constellations) that position them as a more electronic Julian Casablancas. The challenge is that there are dozens of great bands or artists in the same space: Kelley Stoltz, Devin Davis, Billy Harvey… (Who? Exactly…) This is a great record, taken in isolation - Deez is a better vocalist than Casablancas, and there is a good loose-limbed energy everywhere; the casiotone synths also seem perfect for what they're doing, the wittiness of the lyrics contributes. The shame would be if this debut were taken for more than what it is - a very interesting first go 'round - and expectations were changed because of that.

ACE rating 7/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 02.05.10

Jesca Hoop

Kismet Acoustic EP

Last Laugh

With the really rather special album Hunting My Dress bringing Jesca Hoop fame as this year's best quirky female singer-songwriter, time perhaps seemed right to release an EP of acoustic covers of her own songs, largely drawn from her debut album, Kismet.

Everything's there - the wonderful better-than-Bjork voice, the interesting arrangements… And yet, it is hard to not wonder what's missing, and that thing is the excitement from the Tom Waits-like orchestration that the studio brought to Hunting My Dress. While the EP is lovely, and is a great way to gain additional perspective on the two albums, this is for those who've already fallen in love with those records, not someone who is checking her out.

ACE rating 7/10

Aqualung

Magnetic North

FullFill

Aqualung (well, Matt Hales, who is Aqualung) has done very well since breaking through on the back of a VW advert with Strange and Beautiful. Since then, he has had an occasional track (Easier To Lie, Brighter Than Sunshine) break through and find its way to TC series like Brothers and Sisters or Greys Anatomy. The music is smack-bang in the middle of bands such as Coldplay, Snow Patrol, or Travis, and like those bands, you're really not supposed to find it offensive - if you find it compelling, that's a bonus. Magnetic North continues the tradition on recent Aqualung albums of nice-nice and a track or two that could work on an iPod playlist, or a mixtape CD if you're trying to come across as sensitive. Probably best as singles, unless you really don't like it spicy.

ACE rating 6/10

Jesse Malin and the St Marks Social

Love It To Life

SideOneDummy

Jesse Malin came out from Ryan Adams' wing as a squeakier Bruce Springsteen, forging a more interesting space for himself while Adams went off to forage in country and singer-songwriter territory. Here he follows the wonderful (and under-noticed) Glitter In The Gutter with a more straightahead return to his older wannabe. Love It To Life (the second album of his to be so-titled - the first is a 2007 live album) sounds more like the mid-80s Springsteen knock-offs (like John Cafferty), and ventures no further than the white lines on the same road throughout. Energetic enough, but lacking anything resembling an idea or a change of gear, this is Malin-on-repeat.

ACE rating 7/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 25.04.10

The Tallest Man On Earth

The Wild Hunt

Dead oceans

Sweden’s Kristian Matsson will endure many many comparisons to Bob Dylan, for his adenoidal impassioned folk (think Blowin' In the Wind era), but the artist whom he should properly be compared to is Steve Forbert, for his voice is closest to that underrated star, and his music more melodic than the protest standards for which Dylan became famous. Like many Swedes writing in English, the actually lyrics have their flaws, but that doesn't stop the headlong rush through word associations sounding right on the money. This is a fantastic follow up to the great debut album, adding in great additional instruments to great effect. If there is a criticism, it is that the pace rarely varies, and that there really isn't much here that couldn't be a straight lift from another musician. Once you're past that, it's all good.

ACE rating 7/10

The New Pornographers

Together

Matador

Once, The New Pornographers were a vital, essential new rock band, full of Neko Case energy and AC Newman drive. Then, as people started to listen, the band (always known as a 'supergroup' simply because it corralled three singers and songwriters) started to sound like the sum of some parts, and more like less than the sum of those parts. Together (perhaps ironically?) allows Case to do Case songs, Newman to do his, and, for some reason allows Dan Bejar to do his. The outcome is that this is both a retread of what worked for them in the past (Your Hands (Together)) and some material that shouldn't have ever been allowed out of the studio (Silver Jenny Dollar, If You Can't See My Mirrors). For a band that has been nothing but disappointing on recent outings, Together provides all the reason needed to stop hoping that they were an aberration.

ACE rating 5/10

Josh Ritter

So Runs The World Away

Pytheas

Josh Ritter's warm, gentle voice and ability to write songs that seem instantly memorable brought him to the attention of many, in that space above folk where the occasional artist achieves success. He makes the kind of music that Ryan Adams occasionally manages, or that Stephen Fretwell drifts into unwillingly. There was a time when he was called The New Springsteen, but So Runs The World Away puts him smack dead centre for The New Paul Simon, with its Still Crazy After All These Years feel. One listen to The Curse will be all you need to make you buy this album - its gently unfolding epic story beautifully told. The fact is that Josh Ritter is now an essential artist, one with a place on the shelf of every adult who likes considerate, intelligent music. This is his best album.

ACE rating 6/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 04.04.10

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

The Brutalist Bricks

Matador

For many of us, the only Elvis Costello we're happy with is the 80s punk popster, when tunes met power pop. Ted Leo has been making records for almost 20 years now, steadily improving his craft these past 10 years as Ted Leo and The Pharmacists. He has retained the Frank Turner kind of spit and fire, the angular biting guitars and almost more importantly has started to understand his own territory a lot better, rather than grabbing styles from the library shelves. While capable of some straightahead rockers, it is his explosive fire that is more appealing - like The Posies, but snottier, or The Clash but more tuneful. That is in evidence from the opener, The Mighty Sparrow, and only gets turned up on Mourning In America. The Brutalist Bricks is the best Ted Leo album, and the most Ted Leo of the bunch.

ACE rating 8/10

Cypress Hill

Rise Up

Priority/ EMI

RISE UP is Cypress Hill’s first new album in six years and the first release issued through Priority/EMI, since being signed by Snoop Dogg. Rise Up is the follow-up to 2004’s Till Death Do Us Part, recorded over three years at B-Real’s studio, The Temple, in Los Angeles.

The band's deep grooves and hard riffs are amplified here by guest appearances from Rage Against The Machine/Street Sweeper Social Club guitarist Tom Morello, Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda, System of a Down guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian, singer-songwriter Marc Anthony, rapper Pitbull and others, including Everlast, Young De, Evidence, The Alchemist and Cheech & Chong. The net effect is to improve, rather than detract from, what is a strong set of songs - old school hip hop upgraded for 2010. Cypress Hill were the first Latino hip hop group to go platinum, and Rise Up is a welcome return to the studio.

ACE rating 9/10

Annuals

Sweet Sister

Banter

Once upon a time, Annuals looked set to be the bloggers and critics' band for all time. Preceding Yeasayer and Arcade Fire, the band's ecstatic electro-hypnotic folk had an appeal all its own. Be He Me in 2006 looked set to launch the band as a massive new name. Then, the members went and did a few side projects, they self-released a weak EP in 2008, and now there is a self-released EP. While way more appealing than Such Fun, Sweet Sister does seem to lack a killer blow. It is nice enough - bouncier and breezier than what's gone before. Opener Loxtep is as good as this EP gets, with its World beats, Fleet Foxes harmonies and electro-frills all over the song. Annuals do know how to pull off this kind of thing with aplomb, and if we had an album full of such quality, all would be well with the world. However, the EP descends into some seemingly-easy retread, arrested slightly by Turncloaking. If this is a foretaste, that's a shame. If it is just a release because this stuff was sitting around, ho hum.

ACE rating 6/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 28.03.10

Katey Brooks

Proof of Life

True Speaker

On this debut album, Bristol's Katey Brooks proves why comparisons to Tracy Chapman, Joan Armatrading and Toni Childs (and, in reference to her style, probably, John Martyn) have accompanied live reviews so far.

Having enjoyed a rapid rise to attention locally, and with guest appearances aplenty and a spot on the Children in Need single, she is clearly a singer on the rise. Here, 10 songs tell the story wonderfully, from the deeper and more reflective to the rockier (This Old Skin, Hunger). Where her star really shines, though, is on two of the more interesting sidebars - Lines is a remarkable song, self-expressive in the way Edie Brickell's Circles was. The album closes on Michael Row The Boat Ashore, where her voice - capable of raw, emotional power, is given its lovely head.

ACE rating 8/10

Sparklehorse

Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain

Parlophone

Sparklehorse main man Mark Linkous had a pretty traumatic ride until he took his own life this year. On Dreamt For Light Years, he returned to the mesmerising form of Vivadixesubmarinetransmissionplot, bolstered by the talents of guests like Tom Waits, Dangermouse and The Flaming Lips' Stephen Drodz. Here, Linkous' quiet voice and unusual choices of melody almost always come off, recalling bands like dEUS more than other spacey acts like The Flaming Lips. This is a proper muso album, almost firmly in the adult end of the spectrum, but altogether accessible for anyone who leans towards rock. Revisited after such a sad ending, it is easy to wonder why you didn't recognise its classic status immediately. It could have been made at any point from Sergeant Pepper or Dark Side Of The Moon onwards, so spacey and psych-y is it. It doesn't hit bullseyes throughout, but it never goes further than the 25.

ACE rating 9/10

Django Django

WOR/ Skies Over Cairo

Django Django

This is your chance to get in on the ground level. Still remaining independent, Scottish/ East London band Django Django follow up last year's remarkable EP Storm/ Love's Dart with this Beta Band-like piece of brilliance. Already vying for single of the year so far, WOR is a song that channels Peter Gunn guitar with 2010 rhythms and oh-so-clever harmonies - it has turnarounds, interplay and most of all it gets better the louder you turn it up. The UK has always had a knack for turning out bands that stimulate heart and head, and Django Django look like being one of those bands you should hook onto now.

ACE rating 8/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 21.03.10

Fang Island

Fang Island

Sargent House

Do you know what ecstasy sounds like? Well, chances are it sounds something like this Brooklyn's band, whose blend of Built To Spill guitars, Go! Team infectious enthusiasm, Minus The Bear jags and Fleet Foxes harmonising is a treat if you're properly sugared up.

Many of the songs here aren't songs at all, but seemingly riotous celebrations of a theme. As such, it is the Battles of 2010 - a set of music that is likely to end up in places that didn't know they needed something exactly like this. The musicianship is very good, which given that there aren't many lyrics about (and few good lyrics anywhere) is a real blessing. It is easy to come away with the impression that a concert by this 5-piece would be a joyous hoot, if the exuberance on this second album can be channelled on stage. The album is only 30 minutes long, but it's unlikely that your first hit of porgy punk like this will need more than that to get you hooked.

ACE rating 8/10

The Whigs

In The Dark

Ato

Now this is a real shame, of the order of OK Go's recent new album shame. The Whigs seemed like Athens, Georgia's new awesomest band for the whole of their 2008 album Mission Control. Now, they release this tossed-off re-tread. Aping both themselves and Kings of Leon's breakthrough in the sub-stadium dirty rock space, there are two proper songs here - In The Dark and Kill Me Carolyne. And those two songs are genuinely excellent, especially the title track, handily released as the free mp3 single prior to the album's release for the usual reason - to convince you the record would be this good. Elsewhere, songs like I Don't Even Care About The One I Love sound like some horror 80s rock pastiche, and Naked exactly like someone ingested a Walkmen album on the way to the studio. It may be too early to add The Whigs to the 'oh no, what happened' pile, but they seem to have mistaken the interest in their straightahead rock for interest in their danceable variety.

ACE rating 6/10

Sarah Jaffe

Even Born Again

Summer Break

This is an older record, all of 2008, but well worth a revisit. Sarah Jaffe contributed some vocals to the Molina and Johnson album, and her amazing voice has, as a result, been somewhat more in demand. This lovely little album is all the proof that you need that this bluesy, folky indie singer songwriter is something special - her voice is not traditionally beautiful, but goes right to the core, like a more in tune Janis Joplin. Even Born Again manages to be perfectly romantic and soft, while hard and hurt at the same time - the voice expresses such vulnerability. Like Rachel Yamagata, she mixes in electricity perfectly when needed (as on Under), or takes it back to simply picked guitar to illustrate the wonder of simple beauty. This is a gem of a record, and shouldn't pass unnoticed.

ACE rating 9/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 14.03.10

Titus Andronicus

The Monitor

Merok

Both cerebral and not at all cerebral, this second album from New Jersey band Titus Andronicus tells a story based around the American Civil War as metaphor, and does it in the most exuberant of punk.

To get a proper sense for the music on offer, you'd need to run The Hold Steady through a Sex Pistols filter, with a good load of Dropkick Murphys for drunken balance. The Monitor (named after an 1850s battleship) is full of swearing, erudition and spit and fire, and a huge thrashy spirit that builds on the eponymous debut album's slackness with some real songs and direction. This band may be proving to be one of the more interesting counterpoints in American music, now that Green Day's politics are getting more stadium-level. The Monitor is a riot, almost literally, from start to finish, with rules turned over like cars in the streets. It is also a proper hoot.

ACE rating 9/10

The White Stripes

Under Great White Northern Lights

XL

Most people now know of The White Stripes, almost as a phenomenon as much as a band. With Jack White spending so much time in side projects like The Raconteurs, the essence of the band has not been well captured in a long while. Fortunately, there is the occasionally great live performance to draw from, as a reminder of why some of us would prefer he stick to his day job. This is one of those shows, recorded in Nova Scotia, and he was clearly having a good day, one filled with audience interaction and energy. Highlights include a slowed-down (and full of sexual tension) Fell In Love With A Girl, and songs drawn liberally from the earlier albums (including covers like Jolene and I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself). The real highlight, however, is the level of bluesy edgy melody that a man with a guitar and a female drummer can put into a room. Unlike many live albums, this would be a great place to dive into The White Stripes' canon.

ACE rating 8/10

Drive By Truckers

The Big To Do

PIAS

The Big To Do is Drive By Truckers tenth album, and follows Brighter Than Creation's Dark, which seemed like something of a misstep in their career - lots of songs thrown together with no overarching 'album' feel. Fortunately, this album drags the band best to what they do best - the rock of their own Southern Rock Opera. Like Neil Young on a fiery day, DBT are capable of dragging steel from rust - and here the rock flows from a country-ish folk-ish underlay. Since Jason Isbell departed, the band have taken a little while to get comfortable to continue playing the kind of music they did when he was there, but there is no doubt here that rock prevails - from the first bars, the electricity only tails off on the last quarter of the record. Joint lead singer-songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley keep their respective roles, but with renewed emphasis on great songs and great riffs, rather than just great lyrics. Fantastic to see one of America's best rock bands back on track.

Adult Contemporary Essentials 07.03.10

Clem Snide
The Meat of Life
429
Clem Snide have it all - in Eef Barzelay a songwriter capable of the most poignant, witty sharp lyrics out there, delivering them with a voice that's not beautiful in any way other than its vulnerability. Clem Snide also have a roster of albums that move close to perfection, if you like your indie rock thoughtful rather than grungey. So, after last year's lovely Hungry Bird, The Meat of Life comes as a somewhat unfortunate surprise. The songs mostly drift around on similar melodies, and a similar mood, forcing the attention onto the lyrics. They're still remarkable lyrics, dripping with irony and humorous bitterness, but the album comes across as dry and underdone, as if more music needed to be thrown around first on top of the lazy country jazzy texture. We should be thankful for more Clem Snide - until 2009, it seemed the band might be no more - but here it seems more time between albums could have been a good thing.

ACE rating 7/10


Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Beat The Devil's Tattoo
V2
Success came early to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, as the group were instantly propelled into the limelight on the back of their debut album. Beat The Devil's Tattoo sees them complete a full circle, having gone a bit country gospel, and a bit experimental, along the way. As nicely Jesus and Mary Chain as is reasonable, BRMC mix in some Black Crowes for good effect, maybe some T-Rex and even some Cage The Elephant, and end up recalling their own debut wonderfully. When good, they kick the behind of pretenders like Kings of Leon. It's not the most modern-sounding record, a point almost confirmed by the artwork, but they do have the benefit of a strong set of songs, played really well (even if you fear for the pounding that the drums take throughout - dished out by Raveonettes drummer, Leah Shapiro here). It is a frowny miserablist view of the Goth's favourite rock band, but it is also a whole lot of bluesy good times.

ACE rating 8/10


Joe Walsh
The Definitive Collection
Universal
'Definitive' in this case means 'the best 15 songs you'll need from Joe Walsh's solo career and James Gang time (the group he was in before the Eagles)' as you'll not find any Eagles material here, and the double disc 'Look At What I Did' is way too much for any introductory dip into the work of an unassuming and under-recognised guitar genius. The famous songs like Life's Been Good and Rocky Mountain Way are here, along with wonderful pieces like Funk No 49 - showcasing his wonderful feel with a slide, and ability to funk up some rock nicely. The subtitle of the album - Greatest Hits: Little Did He Know - suggests a man whose career took more surprising turns than even he could have guessed, but there is little doubt that listeners who know and love the hits will also enjoy every other track here. As a way to discover Joe Walsh's music, it is hard to imagine a better solution.

ACE rating 7/10


Adult Contemporary Essentials rating
9-10 Essential purchase
7-8 Good, definite buy if you've liked this artist in the past
5-6 OK only, don't say I didn't warn you
3-4 Poor, even for this artist
1-2 Awful

Frightened Rabbit

The Winter of Mixed Drinks

Fat Cat

The best band in Scotland by some distance now, Frightened Rabbit have built a huge reputation among indie fans, but with The Winter Of Mixed Drinks look set to break through into mainstream attention.

It is deserved, and for those of us who care it will be glorious to see a band with this kind of quality begin to appeal to mainstream listeners. The Winter Of Mixed Drinks builds on its predecessor Midnight Organ Fight with another great title and a wonderful set of blustery intelligent acoustic electric rock. With lead single Swim Until You Can't See Land (and its wonderful refrain 'Swim until you can't see land, are you a man or are you a bag of sand?') already out there worming its way into public consciousness, the sound of stubborn rebellion, Celtic folk, and fierce wit brings to mind a 2010 Big Country. There may be no single song that tops The Modern Leper (Nothing Like You comes close), but each song builds so well that you start to see things only one way. If there is a criticism, it is that there is a feeling of padding in the inclusion of part songs and ideas, which loses a great album one point.

ACE rating 8/10

Turin Brakes

Outbursts

Cooking Vinyl

Turin Brakes had a golden period around the beginning of the 2000s, when their album Ether Song seemed to make the soundtrack to every TV programme, and provide the background music to every middle class dinner party. A kinder, gentler Elbow, the duo make nice, acoustic music for nice people. Unfortunately for them, they have moved on not one jot in the 7 years since Ether Song; Outbursts may be their 5th studio album, but is a plain and simple retread of everything that's gone before. Despite claiming that every record sees them move on, there is a strong sense that they have found that journey away from their initial success frustrating, so have aimed at Ether Songs II. Outbursts starts nicely enough, with the only song worthy of attention (Sea Change), but even that is several notches lower than say a Jacob Golden song. If Turin Brakes are your thing, this is 45 minutes of more of the same. If they are new to you, do seek out Ether Song - it is still a great listen. Outbursts would provide inoffensive dinner party music still, but it seems to have no other purpose.

ACE rating 6/10

Deadstring Brothers

Sao Paulo

Bloodshot

The Deadstring Brothers have not changed their formula over the years - aping late 60s/ early 70s Rolling Stones. If, like most, you agree that that was the best Stones period, this is a cause for celebration, as the Stones stopped making great music some 25 years ago. Sao Paulo can't touch the heights of that band's best, but with its blend of country, blues and rock, there is some sense that this is a comforting place to spend some time - Sao Paulo's most obvious comparison is with Exile On Main Street, which is a rather high benchmark. An album that works better when consumed as a whole, to allow time for the mood to emerge and sink in, rather than sampled one song at a time, this is good time rock and roll. The Deadstring Brothers give the lie to those who claim that they don't make music the way they used to, because this Detroit band only seem to know one way to make them.

ACE rating 7/10