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Archives for March 2008

Bowling For Soup – The Great Burrito Extortion Case

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Since 1994 now Bowling For Soup have been dazzling us with their Pop Punk glory. The key to success in this genre seems too be that you should never take yourselves too seriously, and Bowling For Soup never even come close to seriousness on this album. Throughout the whole of this album the band are just as nerdy as we’ve ever known them before and this is just the way that I’d love them to stay. Their music is not particularly technical, nor do the band attempt to inject intellect into their lyrics, but what they do is produce fantastically fun Pop Punk music which always entertains and never fails to impress. Bowling For Soup have a formula, one they stick to rigidly and for the most part they succeed with. Many of their tracks have strong similarities and yet never is their music ever even close to sounding at all dull or uninspired.

The music of Bowling For Soup is always amusing to listen to and it is this that makes their sound so appealing to me. I’m a great fan of light-hearted music, and Bowling For Soup are by all accounts a band that never take themselves too seriously. With track titles such as ‘I’m Gay’ and an album called ‘The Great Burrito Extortion Case’ in fact, I think it’s clear for all to see just how serious this band take things and this is really quite a fresh thing to see in music today. Too many bands take themselves far too seriously and perhaps a few more bands should take a leaf out of Bowling For Soup’s book and lighten up a little.

When listening to this album something gives me the impression that during their school days Bowling For Soup were never the coolest kids in their class. Tracks such as ‘High School Never Ends’ and ‘Luckiest Loser’ are what tell me this. This is one band that seem to reject the whole concept of being cool and would much rather be seen as the nerdy losers in life. I don’t think you can ever be considered cool making Pop Punk music such as this, but what Bowling For Soup are I feel is the kings of uncool. Through their anti-cool values, this somehow makes them cool and has made the band the icons of many over the years.

This music is fast and fun, the band possess a great energy as they blast their way through this album and never do their bouncy numbers fail to impress me. ‘A Friendly Goodbye’ has to be one of my favourite tracks from this album, it contains an upbeat and bouncy chorus and coming around the albums centre is a definite highlight from this album. The lyrics are as great fun as ever here and just as always the band impress with great ease in this track. Bowling For Soup don’t come across as a band who try too hard and yet their music is greatly effective and comes across perfectly throughout this ‘The Great Burrito Extortion Case’ album.

‘Much More Beautiful Person’ is another favourite track of mine from this album. The guitar riff that drives through the heart of this track is excellent and with every move the band make in this track they impress. The music bridges upon perfection, Bowling For Soup are excellent here and there is no denying how catchy a track this truly is. As far as I’m concerned Pop Punk music is meant to be catchy and fun, and terrifically catchy is exactly what this is and it is therefore an excellent track to listen to and one from which I derive much musical enjoyment.

Personally I find listening to this album to be greatly entertaining. It’s not the most intelligent music in the world; granted, but what can be said of it is that it is absolutely excellent Pop Punk. The music is fun and uplifting, always the band impress as they embark upon their mission through this album. This music is not at all serious and it is this that makes it so irresistible and exciting to listen to. Listening to ‘The Great Burrito Extortion Case’ is never anything but enjoyable and always the band impress me with this album. I have long been a fan of Bowling For Soup and this album does nothing to knock my confidence and belief in their ability. I have great faith that Bowling For Soup will continue to produce brilliant music of this sort for many years to come and thoroughly look forward to hearing new material from them in the not too distant future. Never yet have they disappointed me with their albums and I’m sure that it will be a long time coming before they do so if ever. Pop Punk is one of my favourite musical genres and if it is one of yours also then make sure you give ‘The Great Burrito Extortion Case’ a good listening to, it’s more than worthy of your time and attention and is in fact a fantastic album from a band that are seemingly never short of an idea or two.

Label: A&G
Release Date: 5th February 2007

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Siouxsie – About To Happen

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Clap your hands, say Siouxsie. Siouxsie Sioux is back with the third track to be released from her ‘MantaRay’ album. This time the lucky track in question is none other than ‘About to Happen’. I loved every track from her ‘MantaRay’ album so it should come as no surprise then that this track is one that I happen to be a great admirer of. ‘About to Happen’ comes complete with some token claps, brilliant vocals and a superb guitar riff that catapults you through much of the track. The track drives you right to the end, and I personally thoroughly enjoy the ride. Fifty years old and still bashing out some great music, Siouxsie has now lost her Banshees but is still an excellent musician. ‘About to Happen’ is a fine track, a brilliant one in fact plucked straight from an album of utmost perfection.

Label: W14 Music
Release Date: 17th March 2008

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Bryan Adams – 11

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Would you believe it, Bryan Adams has only gone and recorded his eleventh studio album! What to call it though, he’s already had such top titles as ‘Waking Up The Neighbours’ and ‘Cuts Like A Knife’. Seen as it’s the eleventh of his career and all, how about simply titling it ’11’? Ingenious. ’11’ fittingly contains eleven tracks, plus one as a bonus. According to the information I have to hand it was recorded largely in hotel rooms and backstage dressing rooms all around the world. To mark the occasion of this release Mr Bryan Adams shall be playing (wait for it) eleven shows around the world in a total of eleven different countries over the course of eleven days. The tour is aptly titled the ’11 Dates, 11 Cities’ tour, starting in Lisbon and ending in Copenhagen throughout the month of March 2008.

I can’t say that Bryan Adams has ever been one of my favourite artists, but I certainly have a strong love of his ‘Summer of 69’, many a time I have cranked up the volume and blasted out his raucous rock ballad. Sadly there is no ‘Summer of 69′ here, but what we are treated to is 47 minutes of Bryan Adams as he charms his way through the twelve tracks of the ’11’ album. His mid-tempo rock music is perfect for long journeys on the road, it’s always good to pump up the volume for Bryan Adams and unlock that air guitar of yours.

Sadly this is not the strongest of albums from Bryan Adams, but a decent one nonetheless and one that is complete with a number of impressive tracks. ‘Broken Wings’ for example is greatly uplifting, right from its opening guitar riff you know that this is going to be so and with this one Bryan Adams progresses softly but effectively through the track. The vocals come across well and the lyrics are sweetly spoken, it’s a typically moving Bryan Adams track and is one that could easily be picked to be a single.

In the track ‘Somethin’ To Believe In’, Bryan Adams shows great signs of personal weakness within his lyrical content. His statement of ‘I got nothin’ – goin’ nowhere, tired of under achieving’ does not sound like words that should be spoken by a man who has sold over 50 million records worldwide over the course of his career. If he believes this to be under achieving then goodness knows what he’d consider to be over achieving. The track has a chorus that you can easily imagine filling Wembley. It is understated rock gold, a track would not look at all out of place alongside the likes of his hit singles ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’, ‘Heaven’, and of course ‘Summer of 69′.

There is no denying that Bryan Adams is an excellent songwriter, the Canadian has for many a year been churning out top quality records, and with ’11’ he has produced another that is absolutely jam packed with successful sounds. ‘I Thought I’d Seen Everything’ is another from this release that is definitely up there amongst the best that the man has ever written. Bryan Adams has so much to offer on this track and never does he disappoint as he sings and soars his way through this one. It has an absolutely fantastic chorus and the guitars are never anything short of sensational, after thirty years of doing what he does it is no surprise that Bryan Adams is a master of his art.

Ending with ‘The Way of The World’ as the albums bonus track, Bryan Adams goes out on a high here with an immensely powerful and pressing track. The way in which the track progresses reminds me more of an Oasis release than a typical Bryan Adams number. It provides the perfect closure for the album, and whilst I listen to the track I can just imagine a sold out arena audience singing along at the tops of their voices to this one as it is played as an encore. It’s a real crowd pleaser, Bryan Adams belts out the vocals for one final blast of musical excellence. He certainly saved the best till last here, much of the track sounds very Oasis and yet there is also the odd element of Chris Cornell thrown in also. Ultimately it’s a Bryan Adams song, and yet all the best elements of various artists and bands seem to be chucked in to the mix as well. Bryan Adams may not be one of my favourite artists in the world, but if every track he ever recorded was as good as this one then he certainly would be.

This may be Bryan Adams eleventh studio album but he certainly doesn’t seem short of an idea or two. He’s not yet exhausted his song writing potential and still he has plenty to offer with his heartfelt rock ballads. The man is now 48 and absolute expert at what he does, he’s been writing music for over three decades now and is certainly no stranger to the world of music. Bryan Adams seems to know exactly what to do in order to produce the best sound possible and throughout the entirety of this release he continues to impress and enthral with his fantastic sound. He has a very distinctive voice, right from the very first moment the vocals kick in you can tell a Bryan Adams record from a mile off and in my opinion this is in no way a bad thing whatsoever. Twelve tracks here show that Bryan Adams has still got plenty of ideas and is forever progressing forward with his music, effortlessly he marches his way through this album and struts his stuff in an album that never fails to impress.

Label: Polydor Records
Release Date: 17th March 2008

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Voodoo Six – Faith

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‘Faith’ is the chosen single to lead the Voodoo Six début album ‘First Hit For Free’. The album was actually released back in late 2006 originally much to the dismay of the band. They were not at all happy with the album in its then form, yet their record label of the time still saw it fit to officially release the album which led to a great falling out between the band and said label. Back now and with an album that they are greatly proud of, ‘Faith’ was a late addition to the album having been written by the band last year. Voodoo Six take rock back to its roots, taking on a classical sound and pulling it off with great style. Their sound is well rounded and they cruise their way through some epic guitar riffs, injecting the music with some meaty vocals that pack a hefty punch. Voodoo Six have a great arena rock sound, and music of this sort really should be filling arenas. As it stands however, the band can currently be found rocking joints such as Brighton’s Freebutt, and The Joiners of Southampton. Not quite Wembley yet, but surely they’ll be there someday.

Label: White Knuckle Records
Release Date: 3rd March 2008

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Memphis May Fire – Memphis May Fire EP

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Memphis May Fire are a young Texan band with a good few tricks up their sleeve. They produce music which falls happily into the genre of Post-Hardcore, containing elements of more straight up rock in their sound also. Released in late January through Trustkill Records, their self titled EP contains five tracks that when I first listened to I couldn’t make my mind up as to whether I liked them or not.

The band begin the EP with ‘Cowbell’s Makin’ a Comeback’, a track that unsurprisingly comes complete with cowbells in the sound. As it begins the guitars come through strongly, when the vocals finally make an appearance however they are somewhat of a disappointment. They just don’t contain the same power and energy as the guitars, not a great way to begin life with their EP and certainly not something that impressed me in the slightest. I look for a good opening when I listen to a CD, something this EP certainly can’t boast of having. Whilst it is not immediately attention grabbing, as the track progresses some melodic vocals shine through in which the band sound very much like Coheed and Cambria. I am a huge fan of the vocals of Coheed and Cambria front man Claudio Sanchez and to me this was therefore not a bad thing, I’m sure however that there are plenty out there that will not be so open to listening to such high pitched vocals.

As the band progress through this EP the Claudio Sanchez style vocals continue to shine through, for the most part however they tend to scream their way through this release. Whilst their screaming is at times pretty damn good, there are other times when the screaming sounds extremely weak and doesn’t shine through in the slightest. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just a little too generic for my liking. I’m not a huge fan of the scream-sing-scream formula, it’s been done to death already and I’ve long since tired of hearing it. Memphis May Fire are pretty competent at doing what they do and their music is often quite powerful, their music just doesn’t stand out as being particularly different and they add extremely little to the genre of Post-Hardcore I feel.

‘Therapy Caravan of the Fair Room’ stands out to me quite significantly when I listen to this release. Here the band sound a lot like Every Time I Die in my opinion, a band I am greatly fond of. Again they bring in the Claudio Sanchez vocals at times, but less so than anywhere else on this release. It is a good sound that they produce here and the music is greatly effective, it’s not exactly the most original music in the world but certainly provides for an interesting and entertaining listening experience, that’s for sure.

Whilst in ‘Therapy Caravan of the Fair Room’ the band tend primarily to stick to a more hardcore approach, with final track ‘Conjunctions, Conjunctions, Everybody Loves Them’ they decide they’d much rather favour melody. During this three minute final track they spend two minutes cranking out the melodic vocals before deciding that for the final minute they shall power out the hardcore once more. They end on a light note right at the death of the track, bursting out with one last line of melody, but this final track just sounds a little confused in sound. It’s a track of two halves and does in fact sound like two tracks rather than one. Whilst with most Post-Hardcore bands you can accurately predict the precise second where the band will insert their next scream and know exactly when they will return with a melodic burst, Memphis May Fire are not at all as predictable which is obviously a greatly redeeming quality of their sound.

One problem I have with Memphis May Fire is that in every track on this EP they seem to be trying something different. Obviously this is not necessarily a bad thing and it’s great that they are in fact trying out a variety of different styles on this EP, but to me it just sounds as though the band are yet to find their niche. They know they want to work on the genre of Post-Hardcore, but how heavily they wish to input sounds of Southern Rock and straight up Rock and Roll into their music they seem not yet to know. Their music is fast and often fun, but often they sound a little too generic and contrived for my liking. Rather than working on their own sound, they seem to mimic a number of different bands on this release in order to make up their ‘Memphis May Fire’ EP as a whole.

What I like about this EP is the fact that the band are unafraid of varying the formula and trying out something different. As I’ve already stated however, the flip side of this is that the band seem not to know what sound is ‘their sound’ yet and are yet to discover what they do best. They show that they have plenty of ideas on this EP, but the problem is that the ideas they have tend not to be their own. Whilst Memphis May Fire could turn out to become an excellent band, at the moment they do not have enough ideas of their own to be so and are instead an experimental but really quite unestablished band with much to prove but little originality to offer. The EP provides 19 minutes of decent entertainment, but there will be times on this release when you just feel as though you’ve heard it all before and have in fact heard it done a lot better than this. If you’re a fan of Post-Hardcore then Memphis May Fire should impress, if however you’re looking for something a little different from the norm then this EP probably wont be able to offer you this. Feel free to give this EP a whirl and make up your own opinion, it certainly shouldn’t disappoint but then again it wont exactly set your world alight either.

Label: Trustkill Records
Release Date: 28th January 2008

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Duffy – Rockferry

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Welsh singer-songwriter Duffy is making quite a name for herself at the moment. Her début album ‘Rockferry’ has already earned her a Number 1 single in the form of ‘Mercy’ and she certainly seems to be causing quite a stir in the music press. The Evening Standard commented late last year that ‘she will be the sound of 2008’ and whilst this may not be entirely true, 2008 will definitely be a good year for her I feel. She’s certainly started the year off quite well by gaining herself a Number 1 single, that’s for sure.

Beginning with title track ‘Rockferry’, Duffy kicks off the album in tremendous style. It’s an excellent launching point for the album, a perfect presentation of her soulful music. It is such a powerful track and certainly grabs your attention right from the offset. She’s got one hell of a voice on her has Duffy, she sure belts it out in this one and never will you find yourself disappointed as she dazzles you with her terrific vocal style. She is only 23 and yet the voice she beholds belies her young age, the strength of sound she exudes when she sings possesses a power that few can boast of conveying on a début album.

The funky flavour of aforementioned hit single ‘Mercy’ certainly goes down well with me, it is this track that I feel provides the album with its finest moment. Right from the first beat you know that you’re in for something special with this one and as the track unfolds you are certainly not left disappointed. The chorus is absolutely fantastic and is really what makes this one so powerful I feel, there is also a brilliant drumbeat which is present throughout the entirety of the track. In ‘Mercy’, Duffy shows that she is a force to be reckoned with as a vocalist and more than proves what a fantastically talented singer-songwriter she truly is. Her voice is never short of sensational and always she impresses with that great tone of hers, a tone of voice that possesses a rare quality of elegance and sophistication.

With so many average singer-songwriters out there doing well for themselves at the moment, it is only right that 2008 is the year for Duffy to really make her mark. The music possesses a great maturity and unlike some of her contemporaries Duffy does not rely on incoherent sentences in order to make her mark, instead the music is greatly intelligent and the lyrics actually mean something. Album tracks such as ‘Warwick Avenue’ and ‘Serious’ are extremely well rounded and finely put together, providing perfectly for music that is absolutely excellent to listen to. The music is always thoroughly enjoyable, hugely powerful, and never does Duffy disappoint with her larger than life voice.

Ending the album with ‘Distant Dreamer’ Duffy goes out on a high, leaving you wanting for more and craving to hear another of her finely crafted soulful pop anthems. It definitely ends the album on a high, I fail to see how anyone could dislike this one and I personally thoroughly enjoy the listen each and every time I hear ‘Distant Dreamer’. Once more her vocals are belted out at the top of her voice and will certainly not leave you disappointed. When listening to the music you tend to forget her age and the fact that this is only her début album, all this goes out the window and all you hear is an extremely mature and well accomplished musician who sounds to be at the top of her game. Duffy was born to perform and never in this album does she ever seem to suggest otherwise, each and every moment on this release is finely crafted and expertly carried out.

‘Rockferry’ has an extremely calming effect on you as a listener, whatever you may be thinking or feeling when you begin listening to the album will soon be forgotten and the music will overcome you. You can feel as the music runs through every inch of your being, it is a great feeling and Duffy’s début album definitely does not disappoint. There are ten tracks here, each as beautiful and well crafted as the next and never is the sound produced anything short of sensational. Wales has definitely produced a fine artist in Duffy, she is exceptionally talented and should certainly have a terrific career ahead of her. This may be her first album, but I’m sure that it wont be her last. I could easily listen to the music of Duffy all day without ever tiring of it, her voice truly is that stunningly sensational in sound. If you’re a fan of singer-songwriters then I think you’ll find that Duffy is amongst the best and her music is therefore definitely well worth a listen. Those that appreciate soulful pop music should love the sound of Duffy, she should go far and I have full faith in her that she shall.

Label: A&M
Release Date: 3rd March 2008

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