Album Round-Up

The Tab music team’s fortnightly reviews of the latest album releases.

14 years ago

Foals Jordan Bickerton Kate Nash Oskar Williams-Grut Stephen Yang Total Life Forever

Foals- Total Life Forever

Having been waited in rapture for this album to leak, Total Life Forever initially came as a bit of a disappointment. Lacking in the same brand of jerky energy that characterised Foal’s 2008 debut Antidotes, upon first listen it seemed to have no obvious crowd pleasers, aside from the current single This Orient and the blistering opener Blue Blood.

However, I gave it a second chance, and I’m glad I did. Total Life Forever is an album that rewards the listener again and again as they return to it. Foals have admirably conquered the challenge of the “difficult second album” by developing a new, more mature and complex sound. What it lacks in immediacy it makes up for in slow building and carefully crafted melodies, found on tracks such as the eponymous Total Life Forever and After Glow. The album is littered with moments that border on perfection in terms of musical composition, and strong echoes of Radiohead can be heard throughout.

Although let down by poor production which leaves the songs sounding flat on first listen, the structure and melodies of nearly all of the songs are faultless. Although not immediately catchy, you will find yourself humming the hooks long after the record itself has finished. Total Life Forever does not have as much overall cohesion as Antidotes, however, Foals persistent attempts to push boundaries and explore new sounds, and their incredible success at it, can only be envied.

OSKAR WILLIAMS-GRUT

Scouting for Girls – Everybody wants to be on TV

It would be very easy to tear into the many faults of this album, but instead I’m going to start on its sole positive. The song titles provide any review you’d ever need. This ain’t a love song – no it most certainly isn’t. Silly song – yes it is a very silly song, and the repetitive lyrics and basic guitar lines are a simple as 1+1. Even the band’s name “Scouting for Girls” summarises their business acumen; like their debut, teenage girls will buy this album by the bucket load. Appalling lines such as “Posh girls have good manners/ But they go like the clappers,” show that there really is little to differentiate them from any other pub band in the country. Steer well clear of this album if you respect your ears.

CHRIS BANNON

Delorean – Subiza

Spanish band bringing sunshine music to us from faraway shores. What a surprise. Delorean return with their third LP, titled Subiza. An album of free flowing ambient synth pop mixed with upbeat Balearic disco, Subiza’s sound betrays the bands Basque heritage, and what a heritage it is.

Upon first listen one may be tempted to label Delorean as just another synth pop band, filling up summer playlists in 2010 in a way similar to their contemporaries Cut Copy had done in previous years. I don’t deny that Subiza is definitely a summer album. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find that behind the easy pop sunshine lies an intriguing record worth listening to even when autumn is on its way.

Lead single Stay Close showcases the bands full range of synth effects in a style reminiscent of Phoenix whilst also demonstrating their house orientated inflections. A song of summer nostalgia, it sets the tone for much of the record. The album provides a blend of house inspired synth pop, managing to sound consistent in mood and tempo yet also retaining the ability to charm and surprise its listener – check the bridge in Infinite Desert. Whilst not carrying much lyrical intent, Delorean manage to craft a mood within this album that hides this fault well, allowing the music to transcend the need for verbal description, and choosing instead to let songs bleed into each other like hazy summer memories. By texturing the album with ephemeral vocals and slow building rhythms Delorean takes the listener back through layers of summer memories, none more clearly so than the ethereal Warmer Places. I am glad to say that the sound of summer 2010 has definitely arrived.

STEPHEN YANG

Kate Nash – My Best Friend is You

Kate Nash’s second album announces its intentions from the outset, as jaunty keys and a brass section aim for a ‘bigger’ sound on opener ‘Paris’. Unfortunately, Nash’s painfully affected ‘Carry On…’ accent is still the most striking feature. The album continues in a similar vein, as the 22 year old monopolises the listener’s attention; on the whole, she proves incapable of carrying an album alone. Positive moments include ‘Kiss that Grrrl’, a mildly amusing deconstruction of teenage insecurity; lead single ‘Do-Wah-Doo’, bound to feature on a ‘kooky’ Orange advert on the near future; and ‘Early Christmas Present’, featuring a strong vocal line. On the flipside, ‘I Just Love you More’ left me wishing Nash’s parents had slapped her legs more as a child…

Nash foregrounds her lyrics (often at the expense of vocal hooks), apparently convinced that the ubiquitous ‘Foundations’ has cemented her position as an eminent ‘street-poet’; it didn’t, and she isn’t. There is little lyrical guile – “Barbeque food is good / You invite me to eat it, I should” – and attempts to convey a genuine message fall flat. ‘Mansion Song’ is a case in point – a quasi-‘rap’ lambasts groupie culture, but is excruciatingly executed, and so reductive as to be thoroughly counter-productive. Don’t take my word for it – the lyrics speak for themselves.

At the end of ‘Don’t You Want to Share the Guilt’, the singer cries “I feel like shouting… because I’ve got something to say”. I am inclined to disagree. ‘My Best Friend is You’ is average at best, infuriating at worst.

JORDAN BICKERTON

Plan B – The Deformation of Strickland Banks

Former hard man rapper Ben Drew career appears to be following his stage name with his follow up to Who Needs Actions When You’ve Got Words. The scary, hatred filled persona has been swapped for a soul infused concept album which tells the fictional story of Strickland Banks, a man who is being sent down for a crime he did not commit. Such a sudden shift in direction may sound like the start of a suicide note. The result is surprisingly superb though, the note perfect falsetto voice showing that there is a lot more to this artist.

Lead singles Stay too Long and She Said combine this new sound sublimely with his raps, the latter providing some narrative to the story of Banks. The album is not completely without fault however. Musically it is a triumph, but the concept of describing Banks falls down to an extent. We never learn what crime he has been accused of and at times the lyrics are clichéd. More narrative could have provided this, but this is only a minor criticism. With an accompanying film along the way, career plan B definitely seems to have been a huge success for Drew.

CHRIS BANNON

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