Well Eurovision is over for another year. The entries were collectively strong, there were some surprises along the way, but the winner was a deserving choice.
And in the middle of it all was Loreen, 2012's winner, performing in the interval show. It's no coincidence that her latest single, We Got The Power, is released in the same week as the competition that made her a star across the continent.
However, this probably isn't what you'd expect from her. There's still an element of the trancey Euphoria she's known for, but the whole thing starts with a guitar riff that adds a rockier edge. The chorus, meanwhile, is uplifting (if a little shouty) and accompanied by military beats. It's catchy enough and perhaps an indication as to the direction of her follow-up album (due later this year), but it's unlikely to induce the same euphoria as her debut, 'Heal'.
Well this is an unlikely collaboration. But it's also a savvy one.
For Williams, this is an excuse to get back on Radio 1. After Candy was snubbed by the station, resulting in Williams's recent outburst at Nick Grimshaw, what better person to collaborate with than one of the UK's biggest selling artists? It's guaranteed exposure and a clear middle finger to his critics.
For Dizzee it's a venture deeper into pop territory with his most radio friendly track yet. The production is typical EDM affair, miles away from his grime roots, and his vocal input is minimal: besides his rapped verses that pass by quickly enough, it's Williams who takes over with a catchy chorus. But then, both artists have always been at their best when focusing on mainstream pop, right?
Way back in 1997 with the release of ‘Homework’, Daft Punk
brought funk to dance music. Fast
forward to 2013, four albums later, and the French duo are bringing
dance music to funk; going back in time to show us the future.
Those expecting ‘Discovery' part two will be
disappointed. This is not an immediate,
hook-laden pop album. It takes time for ‘Random
Access Memories’ to unfurl its intricacies.
‘Discovery’ may be their best known album, but ‘RAM’ is their
five-year-in-the-making opus. After the hype this may not live up to expectations, but since when have Daft Punk ever played by the rules?
The duo have sought to replicate the funk-disco of the late 70s and 80s, eschewing their usual propensity for synthesisers for live instruments. If you’re yet to watch the ‘Collaborators’ videos on the duo’s
website then do so. They reveal the
ideas behind the production – an insight that belies the duo’s anonymity. The sound is clean, smooth and simple, yet contains an immense amount of craftsmanship that oozes through the speakers. Their perfectionism is plain to see.
At the thematic heart of the album is Giorgio by Morodor, the duo's hommage to the Italian producer. As the producer behind Donna Summer's greatest hits (and by turn, the beginnings of modern electronic pop), 'RAM' is indebted to his work. Giorgio by Morodor is a synth heavy track that features a monologue from Morodor explaining his working methods. It might be the third track, but this is the starting point for the album.
Yet 'RAM' is not just about recreating the past: this is the music of the past, present and future. The production might feature largely live musicians, but it remains unmistakably Daft Punk in its structures. Fragments of Time is a prime example, treating live recordings as jerky, chopped up samples for a sound that's simultaneously retro and futuristic.
The album does get off to a slow start and many of the tracks settle in a mid-tempo. But what the album lacks in velocity it makes up for in groove, largely owing to the guitar licks of Nile Rodgers. As Pharrell sings, you will lose yourself to dance - from opening track Give Life Back To Music that immediately establishes the album's style, to the sexy Lose Yourself To Dance, the lengthy and episodic Touch, and, of course, lead single Get Lucky.In fact the only disappointment is that the full version of Get Lucky lacks the flow of the radio edit. Even the quieter moments such as Beyond and Motherboard offer well-produced moments of respite.
There are plenty of emotive moments too amongst the soulful grooves. Within is essentially an android love song, losing none of its human emotional impact for the vocoded singing, whilst Doin' It Right soars, its rising counter-melodies weaving together in cross-rhythm.
The latter track has a hypnotic quality that, together with closing track Contact, bring things full circle as the most traditionally Daft Punk tracks of the album. Contact's central riff is reminiscent of Aerodynamic oscillating above an insane, virtuosic drum solo. After all the funk guitars, this is a track that lurches us into the future.
Above all, 'RAM' is a soul record. In a pop landscape saturated with electronic music, it's ironic that it takes two robots to remind us we're human after all.
5/5
Gizzle's Choice:
* The whole thing.
Listen: 'Random Access Memories' is streaming on iTunes and released on 20th May.
Right from the off, it’s clear that Savages more than live
up to their name. The all-female British
post-punk band have already impressed at numerous festivals over the last year
and they continue to do so on ‘Silence Yourself’, their debut LP. This is the most raw, urgent and visceral
record to be released so far this year, filled with guitars that roar with otherworldly
power, angular vocal melodies and crashing drums, all underpinned by heavy,
richly thrumming bass guitar. Fierce,
primal and almost violent, it’s easy to become swept up by the sheer force of
their music.
Over the course of ‘Silence Yourself’ there’s barely any let-up. It’s not until Waiting For A Sign that the pace drops, followed by experimental instrumental
Dead Nature that’s as ominous as it
is threatening. The morbid Marshal Dear closes the album, including
(of all things) a bass clarinet solo that adds a sense of Parisian artistry perhaps
stemming from French frontwoman Jehnny Beth (real name Camille Berthomier). These tracks aside, the album feels a little
one-dimensional and lacks dynamic range, but as it hurtles towards its end you’ll
barely notice.
What’s most important, however, is what the band stand for:
female empowerment. The title is an
ironic one, immediately negated by the opening track: “did you tell me to shut
up?” questions Beth with a vengeance. Then
there’s the emphatic repetition of “she will” on She Will marking a forceful, irresistible statement. City’s
Full balks at “sissy pretty love”, its middle eight offering a rare tender
moment with “I love the stretch marks on your thighs, I love the wrinkles
around your eyes”. Savages might not
conform to typical notions of sexy (which is somewhat the point), but that’s
not to say they shy away from sexuality.
“I took a beating tonight and that was the best I ever had”, sings Beth
on Hit Me, before repeating “I’m
ready, I’m ready” in submissive ecstacy, whilst her screeching of “husbands,
husbands” on Husbands ambiguously
straddles both fury and sexual gratification.
Beth’s vocal has a wildness to it, even in the softer, more lyrical
moments, that suggests a sense of freedom based on primal urges.
As a foil to most vapid, overtly-sexualised female pop seen
in the charts, Savages triumph. The band
have a point to prove and they prove it forcefully. In that respect, they join the likes of PJ
Harvey in the pantheon of empowered British female artists.
Synch deals are lucrative business these days, with Aplin's cover of The Power Of Love receiving huge exposure over the Christmas months sending it straight to the top of the charts. However, it takes more than a morbid John Lewis ad (who buys gloves FOR A SNOWMAN?!) to make an album.
'English Rain' starts at an unexpected pace with frothy folk ditties Panic Cord and Keep on Walking, which feature upbeat guitar strumming and percussion that chugs along nicely. The lyric metaphor of "panic cord" is also plausible enough, until you realise its also the emergency cord found in a disabled toilet.
Soon enough 'English Rain' settles into a familiar groove of melancholic love ballads. It's clear that this is where Aplin excels, her light, fragile and haunting voice floating along waves of piano, strings and guitar on the likes of How Do You Feel Today, Home, Salvation and Alive. The latter especially shows off her vocal range with a soaring chorus melody laced with folk inflections. It's all very pretty and very nice, but it lacks fire and passion. The sheer number of ballads and boring mid-tempo tracks lessens their emotional impact, becoming as dreary and indistinct as the album title would suggest. Aplin's album is the sheet of drizzly rain pouring down the window whilst you're inside, in the warmth, listening to something far more exciting.
It's also all been done before, in particular with last year's debut from Birdy. She may have sung predominantly covers, as opposed to Aplin's own material, but her song choices were more emotionally substantial, her arrangements bringing something new to the familiar. By comparison, Aplin's songwriting can't compete.
Closing track Start of Time, finally brings something different. The electric guitar adds a grittier edge, whilst the yearning melody and its subtle, emotive dissonances allows Aplin to stretch her lungs. As she sings "it's like the sun came out", but unfortunately it's too little too late.
2/5
Gizzle's Choice:
* Salvation
* The Power of Love
* Start of Time
Acoustic songwriting and minimalist techno aren't necessarily genres you'd expect to see together, but that's exactly what UK duo Cloud Boat are attempting with their debut album 'Book of Hours'. It goes to show how genre boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred in this day and age, with the results sounding like Bon Iver meets James Blake.
'Book of Hours' certainly haunts with spectral beauty. Lead single Youthern is a prime example, on which singer Tom Clarke's vocals are layered with a hymnal quality, complimented by skeletal guitars, electronica and the faintest touch of percussion. It centres on the repeated, bleak lyric "Never felt love, 'cause of the state of us", sung with a mournful fragility.
Much of 'Book of Hours' replicates that mournful feel, Drean in particular. Drenched in melancholy with the chorus line "Death is coming, riding to town on a horse", Drean is a simple finger-picked ballad at the emotional heart of the album. Like many of the tracks, it ebbs and flows with a subtle intensity.
However, it's also a track with no electronica. Often, the two genres are kept separate. Drean is juxtaposed with the dark, nightmarish instrumental Amber Road and its thundering bass surges, whilst album opener Lions On the Beach immediately instills a sense of techno garage, which is poles apart from acoustic closer Kowloon Bridge.
Those tracks that merge the two genres are undoubtedly interesting experiments. Wanderlust twists and distorts its guitars and vocals with glitchy beats and electronics, whilst Bastion's clattering percussion and rumbling sub-bass add weight to the lyric "until the days don't feel so heavy on my back". The mostly instrumental Pink Grin comes in two parts, the first setting up the guitar riff around which weaves the techno heavy second half. Vocoder interlude You Find Me, meanwhile, is pure James Blake. Yet these tracks remain incredibly downbeat, threatening to turn 'Book of Hours' into a lengthy dirge.
Ultimately, when Clarke's voice takes the fore, the emphasis is on the songwriting rather than the collision of genres. That the no frills beauty of Drean is the album's high point only serves to highlight that acoustic songwriting and techno are two genres that don't necessarily mesh with one another.
3/5
Gizzle's Choice:
* Youthern
* Drean
* Pink Grin II
There are three stages of criticism when listening to 'Thr!!!er', the fifth album from the Californian band since their debut release in 2001.
The first is that name. !!! might look cool on paper, but how the hell do you pronounce it when chatting to your mates? At the very least, it creates an air of mystery and intrigue around the band, but it may also have hindered any movement towards a mainstream audience.
The second is dealing with the grating vocals. The band's overall sound is dance-funk, with frontman Nic Offer's flat vocals adding a punk edge that's at odds with the bright production. Something of an acquired taste, the half-spoken half-sung style is certainly distinctive, but most of the time they're simply out of tune - particularly on opener Even When The Water's Cold. The album's best tracks are those that minimise the vocals.
The third stage is final appreciation, beyond the band name and the vocals. The band may not have strayed too far from the sound they established back in 2001, but 'Thr!!!er' is their strongest album yet. It's crammed with funk riffs, slinky bass lines and memorable hooks, in a (sometimes confusing) concoction of funk, punk and dance. When they get things right, the results are brilliant, whether it be on the funkier tracks (summer party anthem One Girl / One Boy; the low-fi, drum heavy Fine Fine Fine; Except Death and its falsetto vocals and instrumental outro) or on the more dance-orientated tracks (minimalist house track Slyd; the shimmering synths of Careful). As a whole, though, the album is something of a mixed bag.
And that name? It's pronounced Chk Chk Chk. So there.
3/5
Gizzle's Choice:
* One Girl / One Boy
* Slyd
* Except Death
On the 18th May all eyes will be on Malmö, Sweden, to host the continent's yearly music competition. As usual, we can expect plenty of camp, glitzy entertainment and, although betting men have a clear favourite, the decent collection of entries will ensure a tight competition. Here's the Gizzle's choice for the best of the bunch...
5. Germany: Cascada "Glorious"
UK audiences will of course be familiar with eurodance act Cascada, so it comes as no surprise the blonde bombshell will be providing an anthemic chorus - as well as plenty of controversy after the accusations it was too similar to last year's winning entry from Loreen. Even if this song doesn't win, it should be an entertaining performance.
4. Ireland: Ryan Dolan "Only Love Survives"
After over five decades, Ireland remain the most successful nation in Eurovision history so can never be overlooked. This year's entrant is a fairly predictable EDM-pop affair, on a par with Bieber or Chris Brown, but its catchy chorus and dubstep breakdown could see it towards the top of the pack. In fact, expect a lot of dubstep in general...
3. Denmark: Emmelie De Forest "Only Teardrops"
This year's bookies favourite manages the magical feat of credibly pairing traditional indigenous folk with pop. The pounding drums; the catchy whistle hook; the epic chorus; the soaring vocals - Only Teardrops has everything you could want in a winning Eurovision song and could easily mark Denmark's third win.
2. Norway: Margaret Berger "I Feed You My Love"
Not just an attractive Scandinavian beauty, Berger brings something a little different to the competition. Eschewing the typical ballads, folk tunes and cheesy pop, I Feed You My Love is filled with industrial beats and dramatic strings. This is a brave entry that deserves plenty of "douze points!".
1. Sweden: Robin Stjernberg "You"
With the amount of excellent pop emerging from the Nordic countries, it's no wonder our top three entries are all Scandinavian. The winner of Sweden's yearly Melodifestivalen competition (narrowly beating Anton Ewald's Begging), Stjernberg delivers a pop song that soars like no other. As long as he can hit the money note in the final chorus, expect to see this sitting pretty towards the top of the pack.
And finally, one to miss...
United Kingdom: Bonnie Tyler "Believe In Me"
This will be the moment that Europe collectively turns on the kettle for a quick fika. When will the UK start taking the competition a little more seriously and make an effort, instead of settling for being the nil points laughing stock? Then again, if Tyler herself doesn't care, then why should we?
Star Trek often has a bad reputation amongst mainstream
audiences for being too complex and nerdy.
With J.J. Abrams’s 2009 reimagining of the series he brought Star Trek to
the masses, but its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, doesn’t quite hit the same balance.
Abrams’s interpretation of the Trek universe is filled with
humour, much of which is welcome. The
large use of extreme close-up brings us, literally, closer to the colourful
cast of characters, whose constant banter is a source of much amusement. The emotionless Spock (Zachary Quinto) grates against his Captain, the womanising Kirk (Chris Pine), whilst one scene
is comically interrupted by a relationship argument between Spock and the smart, sassy
Uhura (Zoe Saldana). The cast bring a
likeable warmth to the screen, the script ensuring that the film never takes
itself too seriously.
On the other hand, Into
Darkness somewhat waters down the series, with a fairly basic plot that
sees Kirk meeting his toughest adversary yet – Benedict Cumberbatch’s ambiguous John
Harrison. It has little of the
complexity Abrams is known for – with Lost
in particular – instead including plenty of cheesy cuts and overly stating obvious
and easily predicted plot points. The
ending, meanwhile, feels rushed and could easily have incorporated a longer
denouement.
The main reason for this?
More Cumberbatch. His performance
brings a sense of Shakespearean grandeur, commanding the screen with a richly
ominous bass voice and stillness. When
he does spring into action, the effect is frightening. The result is the best nemesis in any
blockbuster in recent memory – a character so absorbing and awe-inspiring,
audiences may find themselves siding with the enemy. The plot may be simple, but the emphasis on
character is a welcome one.
Into Darkness is a
rarity in modern cinema - a film that finally makes good use of 3D. In that respect, it rivals Avatar.
We are truly drawn into each planet of the Trek universe and space
scenes literally stretch into infinity.
The opening sequence erupts from the screen in dazzling colour and impressive
layers for immediate impact. Later, ships rotate with gravity-defying force, whilst the warp speed effect is
gut-wrenching. This would mean nothing
if it weren’t for the stunning art direction that combines futuristic and contemporary
architecture for a world that’s almost believable. The action sequences are explosive and
intense, with dizzying camerawork that sucks the audience into the film, all
aided by Michael Giachinno’s sweeping score.
Into Darkness isn’t
quite the complex science-fiction masterpiece some may be expecting, but it’s
epic nonetheless and one of the best
blockbusters of the summer with a tone that wavers between
whimsical and operatic. If Abrams can do
for Star Wars what he’s done for Star Trek, he will truly be the current
master of science fiction.
Editors were a key component in the rise of 00's indie rock, which for some will bring back memories of glum melodies and miserable guitars.
Not so fast! Editors have always risen above the dirge - their first album nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2006 and their following two albums hitting the top of the charts. Now the Birmingham band return with a distinctly rockier edge.
A Ton Of Love is taken from the band's forthcoming album 'The Weight Of Your Love' (pictured) and is their first release since the departure of founding member Chris Urbanowicz - hence the change in musical direction. Their sound has increased to stadium filling proportions, with more than a little dash of U2 in the reverbed guitar lines and Bono-esque lyrics like "I don't trust the government, I don't trust myself, what's a boy going to do?". This remains unmistakably an Editors track, however, owing largely to Tom Smith's gritty vocals that soar in the repeated refrain of "desire".
Indie rock may have fallen out of favour in recent years, but with Editors now emphasising rock over indie, A Ton Of Love marks a solid return to form.
3/5
Listen: A Ton Of Love is released on 24th June, with album 'The Weight Of Your Love' arriving on July 1st.
