Alright, alright. I know. I should be rattling on about what was long praised to be the most uncertain UK general election in a century to date. In fact, it’s been a quite controversial last night here in Britain. According to mass logic, at this point I should be writing up the always dangerous morning-after reflections on what, personally, has been an extreme and quite dramatic electoral delusion. Instead, against all odds, I’m opting for yet another feature piece for the critically acclaimed music review section ARM. Like it or not, I don’t really think this whole thing is meant to be hosting political reflections. At least not yet. Also, not only have I ruled out a socio-political essay on the current status quo, but I’m sure my musical choice will certainly leave some folks disappointed, bearing in mind the present release-intense period (with new music being revealed by Blur, Mumford & Sons, Brandon Flowers, among others)…

This time I’ve taken under close scrutiny newest Alabama Shakes‘ “Sound & Color”, released shortly ago on 21st April via Merge Records. It’s the US rock band’s second studio effort, following highly praised groundbreaking first LP “Boys & Girls” in 2012, which literally transformed the Alabama-native quintet into global mainstream talkabouts. That is to say, expectations were quite high for this second one, not least because of the considerable amount of time taken to work on it, considering present-day digital music industry rhythms and fast-food releases. Despite these external pressures, Alabama Shakes didn’t fail to meet such expectations.

The album as a whole is positively and overwhelmingly dominated by frontwoman, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Brittany Howard’s vocal performances, who’s able to fully exploit her unlimited talent to deliver chills on fine tracks such as lead-single “Don’t Wanna Fight” and heartbreaking “Gimme All Your Love”. The 12-track LP immediately establishes itself smoothly with title-track opener, that leads the listener along a rising climax that gets abruptly stopped by the emergence of catchy “Don’t Wanna Fight” as second in song listing. After a softened laying back offered by “Dunes”, the album achieves poppy and most-likely radio-friendly “Future People” as fourth one on the list, before showing some of its artistic best with aforementioned “Gimme All Your Love”. After the first very intense 20 minutes, “Sound & Color” loses itself slightly in its central portion with some melodic and harmonical repetition in following songs “This Feeling” and “Guess Who”, before unveiling some real excitement and fun again with speedy track number 8 “The Greatest”.

The LP, which to me really sounds like a natural and unforced continuation of debut “Boys & Girls”, quiets down a bit for its final segment, where mellow and sappy “Miss You”, alongside mighty instrumental “Gemini”, see Howard at her vocal top once again. Captivating and gospel-reminiscent “Over My Head” brings the album to its conclusion leaving a deep feeling of satisfaction to the listener. Alabama Shakes seems to have not lost their success formula with the passing of time (and, some would say, with the danger of notoriety), delivering a solid, mature, and evolved second effort building upon their fabulous debut. Before finishing up, I’d like to make a special last mention of the sober album’s artwork (see attached below), which not only appears to follow a late trend of essentialism and minimalism within music industry’s visual dimension, but that also truly suggests that the best is to be found in the songs. Nothing has ever been more true, in this occasion.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

ALABAMA SHAKES

“SOUND & COLOR”

2015, ROUGH TRADE

www.alabamashakes.com

Welcome back to another ARM blogpost. Again, the picking choice was hard on this one, having just witnessed the global celebration of Record Store Day and being forced to set aside other recent releases such as Alabama Shakes‘s Sound & Color or even waiting just for another bit before the highly anticipated The Desired Effect by Brandon Flowers and My Morning Jacket‘s The Waterfall would have been published. Yet, partly because of my past (and present) blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves (AVA) fandom and party because of the recent publicly aired band drama causing quite an uproar, I felt like I had to give Tom DeLonge’s first ever solo album To the Stars… Demos, Odds and Ends a try.

Freshly released in Europe’s mainland a day ago (21st April), the half-EP half-LP is allegedly containing blink-182 demos “along with a few extra tracks”, summing up to a total tracklist of 8 units (-1, considering instrumental filler “Landscapes” as a non-song). The album had already been sort of previewed by the anticipated release of singles (?) “New World” (to which a very angst-filled music video has been dedicated), acoustic ballad “The Invisible Parade” as well as skateboarders’ new anthem “Circle-Jerk-Pit” (which, not surprisingly, soundtracks a video made of skating pools, beers and pretty girls). With the exception made of the latter, which is almost too messy to be properly understood, the two songs Tom decided to release before the actual full-album publication are, sadly, in fact the only remarkable compositions present on the effort. Fluctuating between AVA nostalgia (“Suburban Kings” could’ve easily been born out of “Rite of Spring”‘s ribs) and quite embarrassing blink-182-success formulas (“Golden Showers in the Golden State”: “First Date” and “The Rock Show” anyone?), the album doesn’t appear to be able to take a shape on its own, even after repeated listens. I’m actually saying this with genuine disappointment, being a long-time DeLonge fan myself and having always appreciated his ability to reunite big melodies with compactness and effective lyrics.

To be fair, the record itself got in fact promoted as a kind of B-sides bucket of his, possibly intended as a concrete and material response to blink-182’s intentions to continue as a band even without him (Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba has so far replaced Tom on guitar and vocals in the line-up). Still, this isn’t probably the best self-esteeming reply Tom could have given to both his previous bandmates and the public/fans at large. Why not waiting a little bit more and instead releasing another solid AVA album like last The Dream Walker, maybe with a little help of his (new) friends (Ilan Rubin)? Directionless, at times dull and repetitive, “To the Stars” doesn’t really deserve to get associated with his songwriting abilities (maybe with the exceptions made for the aforementioned “New World” and “The Invisible Parade”), not least because even initially-promising “An Endless Summer” and “Animals” turn out, unfortunately, to be truly dislikable with time. Ok, “Suburban Kings” and “Golden Showers in the Golden State” aren’t bad songs at all, but they nonetheless sound desperately over-heard and too familiar to past successful attempts of his.

This one seems to be an extremely busy year for Tom, according to his own statements to the press (announcing the release of 4 albums and 15 co-written novels all this year, come on…), and while he’s always been someone who doesn’t necessarily like to take breaks between musical, cinematic, and entrepreneurial projects, his explicit plans appear to be too ambitious even for a persona like his. Probably, hadn’t he released this very album, he could’ve managed and allocated his resources more wisely into a more thoughtful product, ideally released later this year or even during the next one. Yet, sometimes the urge to respond to unclarity and defeats can be stronger than anything else, pushing its way through light and converting into forced pieces of art. The result in this case? Tom still De…longing for blink-182.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

TOM DELONGE

“TO THE STARS… DEMOS, ODDS AND ENDS”

2015, TO THE STARS…

http://www.tomdelonge.me

It’s time for another ARM blogpost. I felt the need during the past few days, and although I wasn’t really sure what exactly I was gonna examine, I knew it’d have happened quite soon. Well, after some deep back and forth reflections taking into consideration various possibilities (including the new Angels & Airwaves‘s The Dream Walker and Marmozets‘s The Weird and Wonderful), my decision has fallen on the new record of the Californian indie-rock outfit Cold War Kids, called Hold My Home and released last 21st October 2014 under Downtown Records. Now, I realise that this must not sound like the newest of records that have come out recently, but to be fair there’s some kind of a back story to be told with regard to the release date, at least as far as the European mainland is concerned. In fact, before digging into the proper musical part of this ARM, there’s  something of a background anecdote that shouldn’t remain unnamed, hopefully so to shine some light onto what I consider a very badly coordinated publication promotion on the part of Cold War Kids’s management.

While the initial release date for Hold My Home was set to be the aforementioned 21st October 2014, outside of the USA and Australia the album hadn’t come out until the beginning of March 2015. So, except from lead single “All This Could Be Yours” – originally released on 15th July 2014 (!) – and following stand alone tracks “First” and “Hot Coals” (incidentally the first three songs in the album’s tracklist), the vast majority of good old folks in the world had to patiently wait until the first days of this month to enjoy Hold My Home in its full length. You may now ask yourselves “Ok, right, all good and interesting: but how did this come about?”. Well, believe me I’ve asked myself that question a million time and I haven’t managed to find a proper answer yet. I’m not kidding, as far as I’m concerned – and I indeed did some research on this over the course of the last months – there’s still no official explanation for this delay of almost five months between the release in the USA/Australia and the rest of the world, neither from the band itself (I’ve asked them various time on Twitter, no answer gotten), nor from the label or the management side. So, as you may deduce, Hold My Home wasn’t necessarily welcomed to the market with the best of the conditions a band could potentially wish for.

However, despite (or maybe precisely because of) this legal/promotional/marketing long-lasting burden that accompanied Cold War Kids’s latest effort, its definitive release triggered a big sense of relief, at least in me. The album, although not being their best one, presents some very fresh sounds that echo unlike anything else around at the moment. Drawn by the initial triple combo of singles, Hold My Home delivers a genuine representation of a honest, direct, and believable indie-pop-rock with loads of piano/keyboards and some retro-vintage ambient feelings. There are some immediate no-gos as well, though: tracks like “Nights & Weekends”, “Flower Drum Song”, and “Harold Bloom” can’t really take off even after repeated listens, and all this appears as something quite unfortunate. Those three tunes definitely not worth the presence in an album otherwise way above average compared to the material out currently, also bearing in mind Cold War Kids’s relatively notorious status in the mainstream music industry. By contrast, the aforementioned opening trio composed by “All This Could Be Yours”, a rather fast-driving crafter indie anthem of modern times, “First”, probably the most poppy and ear-wormy tune on the album (it’s actually quite irresistible), and “Hot Coals”, a more raw and uncomfortable but pleasant reminiscence of early 00’s indie sound-alike, truly give the record a notable twist. These three songs, in addition to the electro-synth dominated “Drive Desperate” and personal favourite (as well as upcoming single, judging by the recently released official video on YouTube) “Hotel Anywhere”, mark a pretty clear quality distinction in the album making the first half absolutely rad and letting the thread lose its way as tracks go on, with the exception made of closing treat “Hear My Baby Call”.

Thus, overall a very decent album that builds up (possibly too) great expectation after listening to its first half and that loses itself along the way from track 6 to 10 (even the title-track isn’t really able to impose itself after time…). Nonetheless, a much appreciable musical statement made by one of the pioneers of modern indie-rock that, as usual, don’t miss one opportunity to experiment and surprise its fans with the album’s artwork too, in my opinion once again amazing (cf. image below). Welcome back Cold War Kids, for this time we’re ready to forgive your delay, but if this is the musical direction you’re intended to undertake, remember not to play with fire for too long.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

COLD WAR KIDS

“HOLD MY HOME”

2014/2015, DOWNTOWN RECORDS

http://www.coldwarkids.com