Arrows of Love - Ones to Watch

One of two pieces to appear in NARC's Ones to Watch in 2010 feature:

Arrows of Love are a mini super-group based in London and comprising a revolving cast of musicians who have previously worked with the likes of Hush the Many, Jamie T and Courtney Love to name a few. They have won an array of plaudits already for their singles so far which have been sharp, catchy, and tinged with that same hint of menace that characterises the best Sonic Youth songs. If they can put together an album which can match the quality of Burn This Town and The Illusionist then 2010 is theirs to do with as they see fit.

Gig of the Year (Take 2) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Newcastle O2 Academy - 3/12/09

After last Thursday, I had little choice but to amend my choice for the Muso's Guide Gig of the Year piece. Good job it hasn't been run yet!

It isn’t just a trick of my memory that the best gig I’ve been to this year also happens to be my most recent. It’s just that Yeah Yeah Yeahs were THAT good at Newcastle Academy on December 3rd. It’s not easy whipping the indie-kids into a frenzy in a venue of that size (I’ve seen plenty of bands fail) but from start to finish the band were a whirling buzz of energy, and the crowd had no choice but to comply. The new songs were as visceral as the old ones, and showed that the band can now put together a pretty meaty set after three albums. There was a real triumphant feel to the show which rounded off a fantastic year for the band. It wasn’t just the best gig I’ve seen this year, it was one of the best I’ve ever seen.

We Fell to Earth - We Fell to Earth (Album)

We Fell to Earth are a collaboration between longtime UNKLE stalwart Richard File and Wendy Rae Fowler (best known for her work with Queens of the Stone Age and Mark Lanegan). File was clearly aware that he was onto something with this project because his desire to completely focus his attention on it prompted him to quit his day job with UNKLE after nigh on ten years.

His decision would appear to be a sage one, as We Fell to Earth is an impressively engrossing debut album. The band’s manifesto is made quite plan right from the start with opening track Spin This Town. Its hypnotic beats and File’s mantra-like vocal delivery call to mind James Chapman’s best work with Maps.

From that point onwards, the record follows a fairly similar path to its opening moments. You‘d be forgiven for thinking that it is a path that we‘ve all seen trodden plenty of times over the last few years. It stops sufficiently short of copy-cat level, but that Maps parallel really is quite strong and there are even occasional echoes of 2009‘s biggest blog-hype victims the XX. That said, this doesn’t make its execution any less impressive. The key We Fell to Earth’s success is the same thing which made its counterparts so engaging - it has a certain intangible sense of brooding menace which draws you in and envelopes you right up to its climactic notes.

The most captivating moments on the record are those which see Fowler’s vocals drizzled over the songs. She is used sparingly throughout the album (perhaps a little too sparingly really), but on a few occasions she gets free reign. Two of these songs in particular, Sovereign and Be Careful What You Wish For are among the album’s high points. The backing tracks on both complement her voice perfectly, augmenting the atmosphere with ghostly synths and otherworldly percussion.

The album as a whole is an intriguing contrast between the muggy sultriness of the layers of noise and the sense of chill suggesting by the brooding basslines and the repetition-heavy vocal delivery. You get the impression that We Fell to Earth are conscious of this contradiction and play around with it purely to fuck with our heads. I get the sense that this is something which will give this record plenty of longevity, as there is hell of a lot to discover here, even notwithstanding the album’s reluctance to stray far from its formula. However, you also fear that the subtlety of the work will see it overlooked in most quarter. Therefore, I urge to persevere with it until it opens itself up, because the rewards are plentiful.

8/10

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Newcastle O2 Academy - 3/12/09 (Gig)

When you’re an indie luddite like me, it becomes a bit of a rarity to attend a gig which involves you running the gauntlet of vultures touting ill-gotten tickets outside the venue. Tonight’s appearance by Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Newcastle Academy is such an occasion, where the presence of a parade of scum-sucking touts serves as a reminder of the scale we’re dealing with here. The band have grown out of their days as NME hype victims into a permanent fixture in the indie big league. And rightly so, given the consistently high standard of their three full-length records.

But what of their live show? Well, it’s peerless. Karen O is the undoubted star of the show, a prowling, twirling, pogoing hipster dream, decked out in some sort of Amazing Technicolour Dream Poncho. Her voice is like razor blades dipped in honey, and when on ‘Cheated Hearts’ she sings “Sometimes I think that I’m bigger than the sound”, it’s with a glint in her eye. She knows she’ll never write a truer line, because she’s without doubt the most charismatic and engaging front woman we’ve seen this decade.

Not that it’s all about Karen, mind you. One of the things which have allowed Yeah Yeah Yeahs to endure the initial push is the fact that they are more than just KO and Friends. Drummer Brian Chase and guitarist Nick Zinner pull their weight too, and help to amplify the energy captured on the records. This applies as much to the synth-heavy songs of It’s Blitz! (understandably dominant in the setlist) as it does to the rawer older material. The newer tracks maintain their inherent groove, but still sit comfortably alongside songs from the first couple of records thanks mainly to Zinner’s guitar work which instils them with more raggedness than the versions committed to tape.

There’s a moment during the set tonight when the lights turn the ceiling bright blue and for a fleeting second you’re transported from a rainy December night in the North East to a field somewhere in the middle of summer. This sits perfectly with the triumphant, one-off feel of tonight’s show which can only be compared to that of a festival. The fact that the Academy’s floor is stickier than the boggiest of farmer’s fields only serves to add to that impression.

There are elements of tonight’s set which would come across as cloying and hackneyed in the hands of lesser bands than Yeah Yeah Yeahs. However, moments like the regular (and blatant) crowd-pandering screams of “Noo-caaa-sull” from Karen come across so enthusiastically that they just make the band seem more likeable. The same goes for the lighters-in-the-air acoustic version of ‘Maps’. Far from being a cynical and lazy ploy, it’s a genuinely warming slow dance fit for the first dance at the indiest of weddings.

It’s clear now that Yeah Yeah Yeahs are Indie royalty. Few other bands out there can grab your attention so fully and so completely that you want to squeeze as much as humanly possible out of every second you spend in their company. Tonight sees them absolutely at the peak of their powers, and twenty pounds seems an absolute bargain for the privelege of experiencing it. Did someone say ‘Gig of the year’? Yep, everyone in the room.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Newcastle 02 Academy 2 - 2/12/09 (Gig)

It’s been a hell of a year for New Yorkers The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. They’ve triumphantly ridden a wave of blog-driven hype for the whole of 2009, picking up a legion of plaudits for their effortlessly wonderful debut album which has culminated in a top 10 place in our very own albums of the year poll . I had them far higher than 8th in my own personal list, but hey, such is democracy…

Tonight’s trip to Newcastle’s O2 Academy 2 sees them hauling in a respectably sized crowd of skinny check-shirted types. At first, it seems they are going to struggle to live up to our (admittedly colossal) expectations, as the songs commence in a worryingly anaemic manner. ‘This Love is Fucking Right!’, one of the most buoyant, gleeful moments on the record raises the curtain in fairly underwhelming fashion, as it is tossed out almost indifferently. It gives us serious cause to worry that Newcastle’s first experience of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart will be a disappointing one.

However, after a couple of songs, the band visibly begin to relax and settle into their stride. As they do so, the volume seems to pick up, the drumming seems sharper and more urgent, and their distinctive wash of sound fills the room. It all culminates fittingly in the sky-scraping ‘Gentle Sons’, a microcosm for the whole set which starts off with a powerful ‘Be My Baby’ drumbeat and gradually builds into a tumult of almost My Bloody Valentine-esque proportions.

In spite of the obvious progression in the quality of the performance, sadly the Academy remains absolutely devoid of atmosphere. Maybe it’s down to the less than top-quality sound which obscures the vocals even more than is probably intended, or whether the crowd are just having a bit of an off-night, it’s hard to say. However, it doesn’t make the band’s job any easier, nor does it reflect on their efforts to engage us with their songs and occasional smattering of likeably awkward between-song chatter.

One other slight gripe is that it is clear that the newer songs are the ones which inspire the most enthusiasm in the band. In particular, the tracks aired from their gorgeous new Higher Than the Stars EP seem to be delivered with the most fervour, as does the apparently nameless new song (very much in the vein of their previous work, by the way, and no worse off for it). It seems that perhaps they’ve now reached that stage which all bands will eventually reach after having toured the living shit out of their debut for God knows how many months. No matter how good the songs, their jadedness in playing them night after night after night begins to show. Tonight is only a minor example of this, and we still leave with our faith in The Pains of Being Pure at Heart firmly in tact, but perhaps now is the time for them to go to ground and commence the daunting task of following up this year’s breathtaking recorded output.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Album)

My other contribution to the Muso's Guide Top 50 of 2009 countdown.

Plenty of artists have capitalised on the upsurge in popularity of the revival of 80s and 90s indie-pop. However, none have done so with quite as much aplomb of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. While some bands seem to spend years honing their sound, The Pains… appear to have just dropped out of the sky with a sound that is at once unique and zeitgeist-embracing. Their debut album is a collection of upbeat and compelling songs, riddled with hooks and slathered in that wonderfully echoey dreaminess of C86. The songs are consistently strong, with particular highlights for me being ‘Come Saturday’ and ‘This Love is Fucking Right!’ What is even more encouraging is that they have followed up this record with an EP which occasionally even surpasses parts of the album. So then, a wonderful debut record, with the tantalising promise of an even better follow-up to come. Can this band do any wrong?

Asobi Seksu - ReWolf (Album)

Earlier this year, New York shoegazers Asobi Seksu released their third studio album Hush. It showed progression from their previous releases, moving away from their usual noise-heavy sound to something a little less ostentatious. As it turned out, the record proved slightly underwhelming, but then it had two very strong predecessors to live up to.

Asobi have always been partial to giving us the odd little sweetener between albums, and they’re at it again with ReWolf, which is a collection of acoustic reworkings of their existing compositions and a Hope Sandoval cover, all laid down in a single day in London last year. It’s actually a repackaged and renamed version of the previously tour / webshop only ‘Acoustic at Olympic Studios’, and is presumably designed to tide us over while they work on Hush’s follow-up. And, if that is ReWolf’s main aim, then you can certainly say mission accomplished. What we get here is an interesting curio, which showcases a starker, more fragile side to Asobi Seksu which we have only really seen fleeting glimpses of on previous releases.

By removing the heavily layered noise normally present on most of these songs, they have definitely emphasized the beauty of Yuki Chikudate’s voice.
However, in doing so they have also inadvertently taken away an important component in what was good about them in the first place. Because part of what makes Asobi Seksu interesting is the contradiction between the tumult of the guitars and the beguiling little girl lost vocals. Without that juxtaposition, this album can occasionally sound a bit one-dimensional, and at worst comes off like those pointless acoustic versions bands sometimes put out as b-sides when they’ve run out of songs.

ReWolf’s best moments are mainly the songs which were already relatively quiet, like Blind Little Rain and Breathe Into Glass. The emotional pull already present in those songs is amplified and thus so is their intrinsic quality. A large chunk of the credit here is due to Yuki’s delivery, the prettiness of which is unquestionably the highlight of the album. Of the songs which get a major reworking, only Thursday really benefits. Perhaps this is because the delicately melodic rehash it receives seems a bit less wishy-washy and a lot more thought out than some of the other songs on here.

Really then, ReWolf is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s a sweet and occasionally gorgeous listen, and like all of their records is a logical step from its predecessor, but it also leaves them at a bit of a crossroads. You wonder now what Album Four will sound like. I don’t think there’s any fear that they’ve fallen out of love with noise. Anyone who saw them on their UK tour earlier this year probably still has a faint ringing in their ears, so I think I can say with confidence that they won‘t be descending into radio-rock hell for the foreseeable future at least. That said, it might still be worth crossing your fingers that Yuki and James are astute enough to realise what makes their band so compelling.

6/10