Monday 30 August 2010

Album Review: Your Future, Our Clutter - The Fall


****
A funny thing The Fall. I've been aware of Mark E. Smith for years but it's only since listening to favourite comedian Frank Skinner's radio show (in which he insists on playing one Fall track every week) that my interest has finally been piqued.

As a result I feel even less qualified than usual to offer a musical critique (this is the 28th studio album under 'The Fall' moniker since 1979).

What I can say about 'Your Future, Our Clutter' is that I've already grown to cherish its eccentricity. From the opening of 'Bury Pts. 1 & 3', which sounds like it's been recorded down a well so compressed is the sound, to the mad ranting of 'Mexico Wax Insolvent', the unique charm of the album is irresistible.

Of course there's no doubting The Fall's sound is an acquired taste. Like your fist sip of lager as a 12 year old lad, the initial reaction is to recoil from the unexpected shock, but stick with it and suddenly the idiosyncrasies begin to have their appeal. Again on 'Mexico Wax Insolvent' the nuance of Smith's repeated 'Aqua Rosa' somehow burns itself into your psyche.

There is, however, a charming delicacy on display too. Album closer 'Weather Report 2', revels in its wistful guitar, Smith crooning "You gave me the best years of my life", yet he still remains joyously cutting, "I watched 'Murder She Wrote' five times/The cast deserved to die". Perhaps in an act of glorious defiance the song ends with the line, "You don't deserve rock 'n' roll".

Similarly witty couplets abound throughout and, although most of the lyrics are spawned from an organised chaos of hotch-potch phraseology, backed as they are by a collection of tenacious tunes from Smith's current band members, the album succeeds as a delightful melting pot out of which many a crystal jewel is smelt.

Thursday 26 August 2010

Album Review: The Chaos - The Futureheads


***
The Sunderland quartet made their mark during the Franz Ferdinand incited 'art rock' vogue of 2004 with a debut album that was indebted to a string of catchy post-punk numbers, an unusual use of vocal harmony and a none too underplayed cover of Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love'.

Since then however, The Futureheads have found themselves somewhat lost on the wiley, windy moors and were allegedly close to splitting in the wake of 2006's 'News and Tributes'. However, exiting from their major label contract and setting up home on their own independent label, they returned with a more assured sounding album in 2008, 'This Is Not The World', which, if nothing else, confirmed their future as a going concern.

'The Chaos' then, appears to pick up where their previous album left off, although this time it feels as if the band are more comfortable in their own skins somehow, happy to play to their pop/punk strengths and not needlessly throwing curve balls to the detriment of a song's impact. Certainly this album's collection of short, sharp bursts of energy seems more focused than their past efforts.

Lyrically it won't win any first prizes but at least it's quirky and informed enough to offer a few tasty delights. 'The Baron', for example, implores us, in our post recession climate, to cease pulling out our hair or, at least, 'dance as it hits the floor'. Highlight 'I Can Do That' is a worthy treatise on the trials of the job seeker, the protagonist frustratedly imploring that they can turn their hand to anything, the song ending in a comic rendition of Keith Harris and Orville the duck's 'I Wish I Could Fly'.

'Sun Goes Down' is another romping number that evokes images of 'Joy Divison's 'Shadowplay' in its couplet, 'The sun goes down and the double life begins/It's a one way ticket to a city of sins' and, although that's where the comparison with the Mancunians pretty much begins and ends, you do get a sense that Sunderland's landscape has shaped and moulded the Futureheads in a similar way to how Manchester has had its effect on so many great bands.

None of the 11 tracks on 'The Chaos' will change the world then, despite laudable attempts to make some kind of sense of it, but they are delivered with a vim and vigour that makes the ride thoroughly enjoyable. Some achievement for a band who may yet benefit from defining a cult status.