Category: 20/30
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fievel is glauque – flaming swords
We never entirely trust the ostensible positivity of Flaming Swords. It’s a disarming album of very smooth jazz, which it then cuts up into unpredictable, coltish motions. The septet have an infectious sense of play that – forgive the middle-class dad analysis – the French do very well. Fievel is Glauque succeed less in producing […]
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arctic monkeys – the car
The earnest voyaging on The Car is redressed by its lounging charm. It is an album of multitudes and conflict, despite the Bacharach-inspired orchestral delivery. Alex Turner’s vocals are a neat illustration of where this record works, and where it dwindles—they undulate and over pronounce, reaching composed falsettos between some pretty inane pitch fiddling. The […]
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divino niño – last spa on earth
It’s hard to be mad at something so self-aware; many of my gripes with this album are not only known to the band, but reasons for its existence. Cuts like the boisterous ‘Miami’ and the quietly moving ‘Mona’ showcase a vibrant ear, but the record’s depth is nonetheless limited by overlying mischief and sleazy dispositions. […]
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blood orange – four songs EP
This EP contains four more songs of the expected output from Blood Orange. That would be a better title. While Four Songs is enjoyable, airy, easy to digest, I do have a complaint: it’s inarguable. There are so few edges, it resembles the hand sanitiser that fails to sink into your skin and leaves an […]
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heaven for real – energy bar
It’s hard not to come away from Energy Bar without some questions: what were all those tempo changes about? Was this music made in 2011 or 1984? Has it come from a befuddled artistic state or a charming, peculiar style? The questions are never answered—you have to accept this weirdo-indie-rock for what it is. That’s […]
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