This week we review the latest albums from Field Music, Gil
Scott-Heron, and Idlewild.
> Field Music. Field Music (Measure).
Memphis Industries.
4 stars (out 5)
Studio smarts are to the fore in this eclectic double album,
which, in its modern proggy sprawl, bears a resemblance
conceptually to Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, though
with a decidedly British flavour that recalls the crafted pop
and art rock of the '60s and '70s and the new wave of the
early '80s.
Musical flourishes come thick and fast, songs stall and then
resolve unpredictably and myriad instruments are on show -
it's an across-the-grain slice of styles that the band, with
a little techno trickery, and no small level of skill, has
fashioned into an impressively realised indie-pop gem.
Single download: Lights Up
For those who like: Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney, XTC
- Paul Mooney
>Gil Scott-Heron. I'm New Here. XL
Recordings.
5 stars (out of 5)
Gil Scott-Heron proves there's still plenty of the fire that
lit his 1970 spoken-word broadside Whitey on the Moon.
Scott-Heron has been flinging barbs of social criticism since
the '60s, mixing it with some of the most infectious soul
ever chiselled into a groove.
He has one of those voices that once heard is seldom
forgotten: deep, rich and incredibly versatile. Years of
suckin' on gaspers only seem to have added extra levels of
complexity.
A mix of his proto-rap delivery and scratchy electronica,
languid finger-style guitar and subtle hip-hop beats, I'm
New Here is all class.
Single download: New York is Killing Me
For Those Who Like: William S. Burroughs, Public
Enemy, Isaac Hayes, Barry White
- Mark Orton
> Idlewild. Post Electric Blues. Cooking
Vinyl.
3 stars (out of 5)
After more than a decade, you'd imagine Scottish indie
rockers Idlewild having a firm handle on their musical
direction.
Certainly, the band's 1999 debut Captain bristled with
scabrous guitars, while subsequent releases revealed the
quintet's more plaintive side, and a broad musical palate.
Six albums in, and the band that can't seem to make its mind
up continues to pinball between frenzied fretwork and languid
intimacy.
All Over the Town crackles with an intensity which
recalls the band's roots, though it's far more convincing as
a folk rock proposition, as on the ridiculously melodic
Take Me Back to the Islands.
Single download: Take Me Back to the
Islands
For those who like: Snow Patrol, Gomez, R. E. M.
- John Hayden
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