Same Social Scene

Spirit If ...
Broken Social Scene presents: Kevin Drew
Arts & Crafts, 2007
3.5 stars

Okay, so here we have a 'solo album' by Broken Social Scene's frontman, presented by Broken Social Scene, with almost every member of Broken Social Scene featuring on it. In terms of actually being a solo album, this is the like a kid 'running away from home' and hiding in the carport - Drew has hardly flown the coop. And thank the gods for that - Spirt If ... picks up right where BSS' excellent self-titled 2005 release left off, with the same carefully-arranged clutter of strings, woodwinds and percussion and just the right amount of slacker attitude. Drew is a modern-day hippie, known for spontaneously hugging crowd members at gigs, and Spirit If ... really captures his warmth and great songwriting skills. And as if enlisting the entire BSS collective wasn't enough, he's also got Dinosaur Jr's J. Mascis and Pavement's Spiral Stairs lending their axes. Impressive.

Artwork: C

Published in mX, Thursday 27 September 2007.

Sweet Siblings

A Book Like This
Angus and Julia Stone
EMI, 2007
3.5 Stars

I've been looking forward to this brother-sister duo's debut album ever since the infectious Mango Tree was released this year, but while the siblings' first foray into the world of long-players is a beautiful one, it feels a little disjointed. I don't want to favor one sibling over the other, but I tend to skip through Julia's solo tracks (they're Joanna Newsom-esque, but don't quite cut the mustard) and instead soak up Angus' more soothing, melodic pieces. Together their vocals are sweet as honey, but on their own they lack the same magic. In any case, their mum should be very proud.

Artwork: C+

Review by Jess Saville. Published in mX, Thursday 27 September 2007.

Weatherboards

In Our Nature
José González
Mute, 2007
3 stars

Jose's 2003 album Veneer took a couple of years, a brilliant Knife cover and a few thousand coloured bouncy balls racing down a steep San Francisco street to gain international acclaim. That album was a great lesson in understatement - it sounded just like a guy with a guitar and a soft voice, sitting next to you on the sofa (or in the passenger seat of your car, or the end of your bed, depending on where you played the CD) and nothing more - it needed nothing more. In Our Nature is cut from the same musical stump - gorgeously low-fi guitar folk with Jose's trademark accented vocals adding the final touches. This time around he covers Massive Attack's Teardrop, though the album's highlight is Down The Line, one of his more poppy efforts. In Our Nature is a good album but, without the "wow, who is this guy" factor of Veneer, it comes across a little beige in comparison. Then again, going by the covers of both releases, beige suits him just fine.

Artwork: A

Published in mX, Monday 17 September 2007.

Northern Lights

Rykestrasse 68
Hanne Hukkelberg
Nettwerk, 2007
4 stars

Rykestrasse 68 could only ever have been made in Scandinavia. It must be something to do with their seasons - after six months of near constant darkness, the Norwegian summer sun must just be the best thing ever. That picture in mind, this album is like the soundtrack to the sight of those first rays of summer sun creeping through the bedroom shutters. The ramshackle sea shanty ambience of Mum ebbs and flows beneath smoky vocals that evoke any number of important female chanteuses, including Bjork, Billie Holliday and Joanna Newsom. Hanne's vocals are fantastic - an exercise in control and restraint - nowhere more-so than on melancholic opening track Berlin, a tribute to the six months she recently spent living there. Picking highlights from a record this complete is pointless, though the gorgeous cover of the Pixies' Break My Body is worth a mention, and first single A Cheater's Armoury deserves to become a local radio staple. Simply beautiful.

Artwork: B+

Published in mX, Thursday 13 September 2007.

No Preservatives

Strawberry Jam
Animal Collective
Domino, 2007
4.5 stars

The opening track of Animal Collective's sixth studio album starts out like a Magic Eye pattern; initially just a confused static of computer blips and noises, it quickly shifts into focus to form a bouncy electronic trance that throbs away in the background for most of the 40-plus crazy minutes to come. Bubbles of noise, animal yelps and accidental vocal harmonies swirl in and around electronic samples and tribal percussion to form nine equally confusing and intoxicating chapters, including Fireworks and Cuckoo Cuckoo - two of the best and most accessible tracks these guys have released to date. Strawberry jam? Perhaps - this is more like a sugar-drenched conserve made from the poison-sprayed blackberries growing over the back fence of the vacant block next door. Get into it.

Artwork: B+

Published in mX, Thursday 13 September 2007.

Tall Tales

Liars
Liars
Mute, 2007
4 stars

Four albums in, this self-titled release sees Liars continuing on their quest to appear under every genre tag on your iPod - here they tick off 'industrial punk', 'prog' and even 'pop'. This is their most straight-forward record yet, though it does borrow elements from their more concept-driven past efforts, with the tribal drums of Drums Not Dead pounding away behind ghoulish They Were Wrong vocals (Angus' strained soprano would be funny if it wasn't so damn creepy) and wailing distorted guitars on much of the album, most notably on frightening first single Plaster Casts of Everything. The fuzzy garage drone of Leather Prowler and Freak Out are highlights, and Protection closes out the album beautifully with smokey organs and a tidy synth beat. Liars is wierd, wonderful, and probably their best album to date.

Artwork: B+

Published in mX, Thursday 6 September 2007.