This is one of my most anticipated releases of the year, partially because I have to make most of the hype for myself cause I’m not seeing it much place else (probably because the name of the group scares people away). But when the retail version (sans annoying promo voiceovers) popped up on the filesharing circuit, I got an uncharacteristically intense giddy rush. The lush rhymes and vibes from Deacon The Villain, Natti and Kno’s conceptual A Piece of Strange made it my favourite hip hop album last year. Its follow-up continues on in a very familiar manner. On first impression, it starts quite good, gets slightly dull toward the middle and ends like a fucking monolith. And then it’s back to the beginning to find everything growing a bit more warm and lovable.

Dirty Acres starts the same way my favourite rap album of all time (Outkast’s ATLiens) ends with Big Rube’s rich bassy voice rapping languorously over delicate piano chords, though the subject has shifted from religion (a topic that would definitely feel very appropos on this disc) to black identity and the state of hip hop: “as long as we breathe, hip hop is gonna breathe with us. As long as we real, folk can’t help but feel us.” This intro provides a calm expanse for the triumphant explosion of ‘Valley of Death’ to rip up and fling into the air like confetti. From there the album continues on, with moments both upbeat and slow, and is consistently not afraid to be soulful, melodic and even emotional; usually without coming off as schmaltzy.

That accomplishment is in the hands of Kno, who provides production duties on all of the tracks and is to me the real hero of the album—or at least what gets me gobbling it up. His sound is quite distinctive. It is very lush and organic, rather like a jungle near Rio Di Janeiro might be, often layered with music that would sound at home behind the crooning of Barry White, and interspersed with plenty of soaring gospel voices and old soul samples. I’m seeing a lot of comments that this album is dark. Darker even than their previous album. Maybe I don’t share this interpretation because I already listen to plenty of trip hop and twisted, haunting electronica. To me the vibe I get from this disc is heat; not exactly a soothing warmth, but more the bright heavy sunshine of the summer, and maybe a bit like a conscientious and understanding friend in a dark place (like the hood, I suppose).

The rapping from Deacon and Natti is in fine form, though to me the album is all about Kno’s production. I don’t know enough to know who is who, but both rappers boast beautiful, deep and expressive voices, which isn’t at all a necessity for spittin’ flows, but certainly helps in the context of this music. The subject matter is generally not the bitches’n’bling of popular hip hop, nor does it follow the independant hiphop trend of pessimism and elaborate wordplay. The songs often touch on beauty and pain, religion and hope, most often by telling stories about characters struggling through various hardships. Perhaps due to their somewhat impressionistic nature, the stories often seem somewhat sensationalized, so when I hear “if you knew where my head is when I’m doing these records you’d never listen to my music again; I can’t let you see the things I dream” I can’t help but think that the dark and twisted things happening in the narrative are more a part of some parable than reality. That is not necessarily a negative criticism, though it might be, but the way the two weave their words together is impressively skilful.

As with most hip hop albums, there are several skits in between tracks. Thankfully, they are more about themes and less about random recorded conversations while the artists were high. They manage to be sonically satisfying and mostly contribute to the flow of the album rather than breaking it up. While they are more pleasing than most hip hop interludes, they could easily have lead into the tracks they set up more smoothly. The flow is injured because the brief skits can’t quite generate enough momentum to get over the blank spaces, and that problem might have been easily remedied. Somewhat related to the above quibble, a few of the real energetic tracks (like KKKY and Valley of Death) are cut off perhaps too abruptly.

While we’re discussing some shortcomings of the album, let’s talk about its biggest. The middle. There is a series of about four songs at the centre of the disc that get gradually more the same, and end up being too smooth and saccharine to the point of near boredom. My appreciation of this suite of songs is not helped by the fact that many of them deal with the rappers (usually guest spots) trying to suavely get sex with various ultra hot women—an all-too-common trope of hip hop which is thankfully absent from the rest of the album. I’ll admit that Devin the Dude’s guest spot on Wonderful is actually quite fine and really only guilty of setting the mould that makes the following seem a bit dull. The worst offender, though, is Yellow Lines, which, while boasting ultra-smooth soulful production, is the source of the albums most remarkable chorus: “Yeah. I put a spell on dem hoes, forgive me lord but I’m hell on dem hoes. Yeah. I put a spell on dem hoes, forgive me lord but I’m hell on dem hoes. Heyeah. I put a spell on dem hoes, forgive me lord but I’m hell on dem hoes. Yeah. I jus… I put a spell on dem hoes, forgive me lord but I’m hell on dem hoes.” I don’t think I need to explain what I find irritating about that one. Those two tracks are followed by a couple of very nice, positive jams, that are really well done, but maybe too subdued to keep me interested; nonetheless it’s still interesting to hear rapping about the simple joys of summer barbeques.

I do really, really like this album, though, and its real power reveals itself toward the end. After Summer’s Gone, Gun picks things back up a bit and gets us ready for the final four songs which are my favourites on the album. Dance for Me is a crooning, slow jam about a stripper, and it is utterly beautiful. Hearing both rappers caress the words they drop is a joy, and the production is perfect, featuring a wonderful, touching old sample that google won’t help me find. While the song is a heartstring-tugger and generally downbeat, the driving rhythm of words and beats keeps it constantly riveting and downright addictive. After that, Georgia is a soulful gospel-inflected lament for poverty and violence. Then Things I Dream throws us straight into that dark, desperate world, describing the violence and greed first-hand. Mexico ends the album on a wistful note as a man muses on goals and dreams and relationships. These four tracks perfectly illustrate how beautifully the production suits the subject matter on all these songs, and the general effect of that is a hip hop album that can be extremely affecting.

Despite my occasional qualms with the middle of the album, almost all the songs are excellent and extremely listenable; it’s easy to come back to them over and over. This is a quality product. So what makes this different from their last album? All-in-all it’s actually very similar (which is sure as hell not a bad thing). But they do make some changes; for example there are far fewer chipmunk samples, which is a definite improvement. It also seems more single-minded and more cohesive to these ears, a little smoother, but still leaves room for improvement. Is it a better album? I’ll need some more time to figure that out. Overall, this is a standout disc. If you want it in mathematics, I guess I’d call it 8.5 over 10.

There are 4 sample tracks on the band’s myspace page (including my favourite, Dance for Me)

Idlewild – Warnings/Promises

Oh, copy control. Thanks to you this CD might “encounter playback problems” on my CD player. Yay! Luckily, I’ve had the whole album in easily burnable MP3s on my hard-drive since January, so it doesn’t bug me too much. At any rate, clearly the copy-control is working!

The upshot of that whole thing is that my anti-copy-control convictions won’t let me recommend buying this CD, which is unfortunate since it’s quite good. While perhaps not as strong as their two previous albums, Warnings/Promises is still definitely worthwhile. Idlewild has that distinctly Britrock sound, so fans of British Sea Power, Snow Patrol or the Killers (who are just pretending to be British) will likely find this of interest. It’s a little less polished, a little more scratchy and rough around the edges (which works to its benefit) than those bands, but it’s still got some fist-pumping choruses and the dancing guitar riffs we fans of the Edge all love so well.

3.3 stars

Keren’s style is light, easygoing and very difficult to dislike. Her
gentle voice caresses your ears as the dreamy but catchy melodies
float over sparkling guitar arpeggios and strains of violin or piano.
The album exudes a delicate folky chill-out vibe, but there are some
louder moments and a good amount of variety within. It is a great
example of how music can be straightforward and emotional without
coming across as schmaltz, though it sometimes treads the line
closely. Like those infinitely enjoyable golden oldies, every song
brims with honest charm and friendliness.

Understated, relaxing and unabashedly pleasant, it’s not an album for
all moods or tastes, but I can’t help but think it may be the perfect
album to take the edge off late night crammings.

9/10

Comparisons aside, the band have a good command of the sound they’re working with. The first two songs hit hard, but unfortunately it starts to flag afterwards, though not from a decrease in quality. The sounds all come together pleasantly, but as the album winds to its close, the songs remain too similar to get very far off the ground. Fans of Pilate and Turn Off The Stars will definitely find a lot to like here.

Eventually, my incredulity was eroded away by the sweet ’70s arrangements, catchy tunes and often comical lyrics. Jens (who kams vrom Schweeden) sees the world as a big, scary, confusing, and, more often than not, heartbreaking place. It’s hard not to feel sorry for the poor guy.

But it’s nice to hear a songwriter who doesn’t take himself too seriously and keeps his sound simple. Jens is enjoyable, purely for his quietly amusing, over-dramatized tales, and the bright and wonderfully sentimental melodies that accompany them.

4/5

7.5/10

The fiery spirit of Celtic music suits a marriage with punk, but I find the distorted guitars don’t really help beyond securing a demographic. That reflects my own preference, and it’s safe to say fans of either genre will find something worthwhile here. The musicianship is good but not outstanding, and the vocals and lyrics are pretty average. Overall, it’s the genuine Irish spirit of carousing that carries the album.

Most of songs are upbeat and many end up sounding rather like one another. This isn’t entirely bad because it’s a formula that works pretty well, but a few standouts (like Tobacco Island) show there’s a lot of potential not being tapped like it could be.

3/5

Josh sticks to the same gameplan throughout, but the songwriting is accomplished, catchy, emotive, and it stays interesting. The lyrics are poetic and often brilliant. This sort of music isn’t for everyone, but if you do like mature, well produced, low-to-mid tempo, melodic folk-pop songs, it’s difficult to think you would find any problem with this album. Down in my room, with a perplexing and draining late summer cold, Hello Starling is my comforting mug of steaming tea, and an understated friend I feel I’ve known my whole life.

8.5/10 or something like that

Greenwood has opted for a very produced sound. This lets you enjoy the quirkiness of his often-interesting instrument and style choices, but overall it’s not a wise move. The songs themselves have a loose, unfinished-in-not-necessarily-a-bad-way feeling that is choked by the lavish, artificial arrangements. If Clarence was some guy playing around in my garage I’d think he was great, but with the whole studio behind him he balances awkwardly on the edge of sounding pretentious to the point of being silly. Criticisms aside, there are some fine songs here, and it’s definitely an interesting even rewarding listen, but all in all it can’t quite outdo being average.

Favourite Colours is a wash of deep bass, clear-ringing picked steel and good old fashioned country twang. The melodies themselves are straightforward but ornamented with musicianship that’s so impeccable it’s often hard to keep track of the complex layers of instrumentation. Many of the songs wouldn’t sound out of place on a Tarantino soundtrack.

I’m not an accomplished Sadies connoisseur, so I can’t compare this to previous albums, but alone it stands as a very accomplished work. This is delicate and beautiful, driving and tuneful music that conjures the welcome simplicity of the wide open and the wind in your hair.

Enter late August 2004, stage right. I’ve now listened to this album about 8 times in the last two days. This is a very uncharacteristic for me, I don’t tend to slather myself with the same music with great frequency all that much. Not since my discovery of Ted Leo’s The Tyranny of Distance have I had every song from an album locked in repeat in my head, calling to be listened to.

My initial thought of describing the general sound of this album was pop-punk if it didn’t suck. That really is completely off base though, but if you like pop-punk (why god why?) you should like this album, though come to think of it, whatever you like you should like this album. So stop thinking about pop punk, goddamnit, Meadowlands has nothing to do with it. The only real similarity is that Charles Bissel has a singing style that manages to sound young, clear and earnest (like sum 41, simple plan and those ilk) but without sounding like an annoying, whiny bitch. Rather, he sounds daamn fine.

It’s been called emo-pop more than once. And there’s something to that, but if you dislike “pop”, or “emo” than substitute either of those with something similar but more personally pleasing. Staccato pianos, harmonic screeching guitar effects, thudding power chords, interweaving immaculate harmonies on plucked guitars and keyboards. All fighting for dominance against the delicious melodies, a great voice, and some spectacular lyrics. Yes, my friends, this is how music is meant to sound. And while some songs may appeal to each of us more than others, they are all standouts in their own right. There are the slow dreamy ones (She Sends Kisses), the melodic dishes of delight and aching and some yearning with a bit of wry humour (at least in my interpretation of it) thrown in for good measure (Ex-Girl Collection), and the total asskicking rockness of, say, Faster Gun. And lots in between (but those three are for me the stand outs at this time). All the songs still sound quite a bit like one another though, but that’s a welcome thing… you don’t feel like you’re listening to the same thing over and over again, but rather getting extended enjoyment from a magical formula the medieval scientists would have died for. And better yet the best songs aren’t just at the beginning of the album, it leaves the best for last.. and first.

“Ann slams in, another lightning round begins, this could get interesting. Where’s Ann been? She pours herself a don’t-ask gin… no ice and light on the bitters. I’m done with quitters. “Charles, I found out; wipe that smile off your mouth, I think it’s tell-me time…” Listening to the lyrics (these from ex-girl collection) you can tell they are coming from a more mature viewpoint than angst ridden teenage sobbing. Charles sings about personal situations from an experienced standpoint, and makes it all seem quite real.

These are the type of songs which get you anticipating each next plateau on the delgihtful journey from first ringing note to unforgettable, anthemic chorus. They sure milk it, and I love ‘em for it.

Oh. There’s also an accordian, which is automatic bonus points (see p57, the Decemberists)

If you don’t like it at first, listen again.. give it a rest, come back to it, and see if it doesn’t sound like the finest of ear candies. Or maybe you will latch onto it right away like my friend who came over today, heard two chords and said ‘i want this’. Whichever, I wan’t here first, I’m just another in the long line of people who have heard this fine piece of work and determined it necessary to sing its praises. This album deserves to be listened to, and you deserve to listen to it.

This isn’t quite what one might expect, and then again it is. Aim and their fellows seem to have very little to do with the sound of the album, so those expecting more of the same risk being disappointed. There’s more disparity in sound between these two sides of Kate, than say that between Dido’s solo work and her collaborations with Faithless, which were in themselves already pretty different.

The Kate Rogers we get here still has the same beautiful voice, but the style is quite different. Instead of turntables and dreamy keyboard samples, we get real honest-to-god instruments. There’s still some hints of that (oh-so 90s, but oh-so sweet) trip-hop sound we got used to on her previous singing ventures, but they’re buried pretty well. This is somewhere between folk, indie country and singer songwriter territory. It’s not rough though. The production is very slick, with reverbing and lots of ‘big’ sounds. It’s not very poppy though, as it isn’t like much else you would hear on the airwaves these days. It’s probably Kate doing what she’s always wanted to do.

And getting all the description out of the way and into the subjective part, it’s damn good. Accessible, but not stupid. One of the things that impressed me most was the quality of the lyrics which are literate and clever but down-to-earth enough not to sound anywhere near pretentious. It’s also a nice relief that there’s a great range of songs on the album, unlike many artists who get stuck in a stylistic rut; Kate Rogers runs the gamut.

My favourite song on the album so far, is probably the penultimate one..’This Collective’, which is a cheery Cardigansesque romp, with a playful drum beat, swooping “ooohs”, and a lovely catchy chorus with summery guitar bubbling up beneath. Listening closely to the lyrics proved surprising for the feel of the song:
“Bless this collective losing perspective, praying their way to forgiveness today. Watch as the people, they’re gathering round and one man he speaks and they’re kneeling down now. Moving, cry freely. Swiftly, discretely. They’ll make their way into your town, just wait. Offering salvation, tainted persuasion, training your life for allegience.”
Whether you choose to see organized religion in such cult-like light or not, I think it’s undeniable those are some pretty strong lyrics, and there’s many more to be found herein.

Overall, it’s definitely a good album. More pleasant than some like their music to be, perhaps not challenging; but definitely engaging, and accomplished. A very strong album that doesn’t draw any immediate comparisons to other artists. Kate Rogers has found her own voice, and I look forward to hearing more from her.