Weekly Music Review

Except it's not weekly. It's just, in the last couple of weeks 3 albums came out which are overall quite good. one of them really really really good. And they're all by people who are fairly important to me, so here's my little review:

Arab Strap - The Last Romance


6th Studio Album. By now many of my mixees will know how much I love Arab Strap and this album really blew me away. I was expecting to love it, but not expecting to love it for the reasons that I do.

Basically it's Arab Strap's most sunny and upbeat album. That's saying something since they're generally very downtempo and super-depressing. But this one has, like, pop anthems! It's still pretty sombre but by Strap Standards, it's poppy. Lyrically it's evolved quite nicely from just talking about bad breakups to talking about, well what seems like rocky relationships finally resolving with a happy ending, at least, as happy as could be given the circumstances. Something like that anyway. It's recommended and possibly one of the most accessible arab strap albums, especially for people that bought something like Elephant Shoe and just thought it was far too depressing but prefers their more upbeaty songs like "The Shy Retirer" (i.e. Frosty, iirc).

Production is a bit different because it's a bit more real-instruments and less drum-machines. And horns even. Horns on an Arab Strap album? crazy.

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The Cardigans - Super Extra Gravity



I go through phases of being really into the Cardigans but Life will always be one of my all time top albums. Gran Turismo did a lot less for me, even though that's the one that most people would know because of the singles on it.

I don't know how much of a splash "Long Gone Before Daylight" made but I thought it was a beautiful album. It felt a lot more personal and even though there was nothing particularly unique about the way it sounded, the melodies and production was tightly crafted, it just worked.

Super Extra Gravity feels like a nice progression, especially as one track is a "sequel" to a track on LGBD. Still it's not got that certain something that LGBD had, and hasn't got much to make it stand out. So in a way it's a little disappointing, but all that said it's better than most music out there and it's still a very enjoyable album. I just don't think it'll stand the test of time like Life or LGBD do. Nina has a lovely voice though.

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Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase



There isn't a whole lot to say about this.

If you don't know Boards of Canada, then they make lovely etheral electronic music, quite downtempo and fairly ambient. Sometimes a little creepy, but usually beautiful. Like being washed with sound. Or something.

Anyway, if you liked Geogaddi or Music Has The Right to Children then this is, at the end fo the day, more of the same. It does what it says on the tin, so depending on your postion on BOC, that's a good or a bad thing. For me it's a good thing. It's different enough to feel like a new album so it's not like they're 'stale' or anything.

One thing to comment is instrumentally, some of it seems a bit more 'acoustic guitary'. There's actually some lovely use of real guitars in the album (what sounds like real guitars anyway) which does make a bit of a difference to the other albums, it sounds a bit less sampley and a bit more performed. That's a good thing I think, because it's enough to make the album feel like something seperate, and not just like an alternate take of another album.

In short: Everyone go and buy The Last Romance by Arab Strap.