Five Albums that Rock Now
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Don't worry if you've lost the new music plot again. HITC Life's resident reader-writer-muso, Lucho Payne, will get you up to speed with reviews of Kasabian, Gossip, The Dead Weather, Muse, and Mumford & Sons.
Artist: Kasabian
Album: West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum
I remember enjoying Kasabian's first album back in 2004, and since then the indie guitar lads from Leicester have become firm favourites on the UK rock scene. The second album, Empire, somehow passed me by (but was good by all accounts), and so now we have the third album, West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Yes, the title is rubbish (whose idea was that?) but, rest assured, this is another excellent Kasabian album.
The album opener, Underdog, is classic Kasabian then the album moves on with the excellent Where Did All The Love Go. The slightly strange psychedelia of Swarfiga then takes us into the brilliant 60's Kinks-style punchiness of Fast Fuse. A fantastic start which is followed by eight more superb tracks including the thumping Vlad The Impaler and the excellent lead single, Fire. No-nonsense Kasabian rock all the way, and highly recommended.
Artist: Gossip
Album: Music For Men
Aah...The Gossip. In 2006 they burst on to the indie-rock scene from apparently nowhere and took it by storm, fronted by the amazing larger-than-life/oops-there-go-my-clothes Beth Ditto (NME's Coolest Person In Rock). Their 2006 album, Standing In the Way Of Control, was a huge hit, with the title track being played everywhere.
The follow-up album, Music for Men, deliberately does not have Ms Ditto on the cover. Instead, it's a shot of the band's drummer in a very androgynous pose, which has a bit of creepy alien-like feel to it. Anyway, the album gets off to a great start with the funky grunge of Dime Store Diamond. Then on to the lead single Heavy Cross, which is kind of OK, but it owes a lot to Standing In The Way Of Control. In fact I keep expecting the raucous SITWOC chorus to fire up at any minute.
The rest of the album is a bit of a disappointment. Dance beats have been added into the garage-rock mix, which is good, but the songs just seem a little pedestrian. It seems to me that the band are treading water with this album. It's all very Gossipy for sure, but I was hoping for something a little bit more exciting.
Artist: The Dead Weather
Album: Horehound
The new Jack White supergroup, The Dead Weather, wowed the public and critics with some fantastic live performances earlier this year. Their debut album, Horehound, was released in July 2009 and I think it's superb.
It's all sultry dirty blues rock with bags of power, grind, and the occasional bit of prog-rock psychedelia thrown in. Alison Mosshart from The Kills is the star on vocals once more, along with powerful drumming from Jack White, Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age) on guitar and keyboards, and Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs) on bass. Stand out tracks are Treat Me Like Your Mother and I Cut Like A Buffalo. Superb stuff. Highly recommended.
Artist: Muse
Album: The Resistance
The latest Muse album is...well, massive - in every sense of the word. On its release in September 2009 it immediately topped album charts all over the world. The album is like a huge Muse explosion. When you play it, it seems to take over and dominate everything. It even seems to crank up the volume all by itself.
In parts, it sounds like Queen, especially track three, United States of Eurasia. In other parts it sounds like a mad version of the Doctor Who theme (track one: Uprising). It's mostly all grandiose and bombastic. There's even a mini-symphony: Exogenesis, comprising of the final three tracks, which apparently used more than 40 musicians in the recording process.
The critics love it and, by all accounts, so do Muse fans. Personally my favourite Muse tracks are the simple but powerful guitar riffy ones from their early albums, and there's a bit of that on here, towards the end of Unnatural Selection for example. I could do with a bit of that and a bit less of the overblown stuff. But, really, that's just nitpicking. A bit like worrying about the foothills when you're about to climb Everest.
Artist: Mumford and Sons
Album: Sigh No More
You might not be familiar with these London folk-rockers although you may have heard the excellent lead single from this album, Little Lion Man. It's been played quite a lot on various radio stations and several prominent DJs have made it track of the week and/or year. The rousing chorus contains the F-word, which is usually replaced with silence on the radio: "But it was not your fault but mine/And it was your heart on the line/I really ----ed it up this time."
Anyway, this album is a delight. It's very honest, down-to-earth, beautifully crafted acoustic folk-rock - with a foot-stomping edge to it. And although they are a London band, I'd love to hear these tracks played in a riotous Dublin pub on one of those wild Saturday nights in Temple Bar...
Album: West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum
I remember enjoying Kasabian's first album back in 2004, and since then the indie guitar lads from Leicester have become firm favourites on the UK rock scene. The second album, Empire, somehow passed me by (but was good by all accounts), and so now we have the third album, West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Yes, the title is rubbish (whose idea was that?) but, rest assured, this is another excellent Kasabian album.
The album opener, Underdog, is classic Kasabian then the album moves on with the excellent Where Did All The Love Go. The slightly strange psychedelia of Swarfiga then takes us into the brilliant 60's Kinks-style punchiness of Fast Fuse. A fantastic start which is followed by eight more superb tracks including the thumping Vlad The Impaler and the excellent lead single, Fire. No-nonsense Kasabian rock all the way, and highly recommended.
Artist: Gossip
Album: Music For Men
Aah...The Gossip. In 2006 they burst on to the indie-rock scene from apparently nowhere and took it by storm, fronted by the amazing larger-than-life/oops-there-go-my-clothes Beth Ditto (NME's Coolest Person In Rock). Their 2006 album, Standing In the Way Of Control, was a huge hit, with the title track being played everywhere.
The follow-up album, Music for Men, deliberately does not have Ms Ditto on the cover. Instead, it's a shot of the band's drummer in a very androgynous pose, which has a bit of creepy alien-like feel to it. Anyway, the album gets off to a great start with the funky grunge of Dime Store Diamond. Then on to the lead single Heavy Cross, which is kind of OK, but it owes a lot to Standing In The Way Of Control. In fact I keep expecting the raucous SITWOC chorus to fire up at any minute.
The rest of the album is a bit of a disappointment. Dance beats have been added into the garage-rock mix, which is good, but the songs just seem a little pedestrian. It seems to me that the band are treading water with this album. It's all very Gossipy for sure, but I was hoping for something a little bit more exciting.
Artist: The Dead Weather
Album: Horehound
The new Jack White supergroup, The Dead Weather, wowed the public and critics with some fantastic live performances earlier this year. Their debut album, Horehound, was released in July 2009 and I think it's superb.
It's all sultry dirty blues rock with bags of power, grind, and the occasional bit of prog-rock psychedelia thrown in. Alison Mosshart from The Kills is the star on vocals once more, along with powerful drumming from Jack White, Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age) on guitar and keyboards, and Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs) on bass. Stand out tracks are Treat Me Like Your Mother and I Cut Like A Buffalo. Superb stuff. Highly recommended.
Artist: Muse
Album: The Resistance
The latest Muse album is...well, massive - in every sense of the word. On its release in September 2009 it immediately topped album charts all over the world. The album is like a huge Muse explosion. When you play it, it seems to take over and dominate everything. It even seems to crank up the volume all by itself.
In parts, it sounds like Queen, especially track three, United States of Eurasia. In other parts it sounds like a mad version of the Doctor Who theme (track one: Uprising). It's mostly all grandiose and bombastic. There's even a mini-symphony: Exogenesis, comprising of the final three tracks, which apparently used more than 40 musicians in the recording process.
The critics love it and, by all accounts, so do Muse fans. Personally my favourite Muse tracks are the simple but powerful guitar riffy ones from their early albums, and there's a bit of that on here, towards the end of Unnatural Selection for example. I could do with a bit of that and a bit less of the overblown stuff. But, really, that's just nitpicking. A bit like worrying about the foothills when you're about to climb Everest.
Artist: Mumford and Sons
Album: Sigh No More
You might not be familiar with these London folk-rockers although you may have heard the excellent lead single from this album, Little Lion Man. It's been played quite a lot on various radio stations and several prominent DJs have made it track of the week and/or year. The rousing chorus contains the F-word, which is usually replaced with silence on the radio: "But it was not your fault but mine/And it was your heart on the line/I really ----ed it up this time."
Anyway, this album is a delight. It's very honest, down-to-earth, beautifully crafted acoustic folk-rock - with a foot-stomping edge to it. And although they are a London band, I'd love to hear these tracks played in a riotous Dublin pub on one of those wild Saturday nights in Temple Bar...
Here Is The Writer : Lucho Payne
Lucho Payne works at UBS as an IT Consultant, and has spent the last eight years working in banking and investment management in The City. He regularly attends gigs and concerts, and his favourite venues are the Astoria, Borderline and the 100 Club. He occasionally plays guitar at various venues around town as one half of the acoustic duo "Fagan and Payne".
view more articles by Lucho Payne
