MUSIC REVIEW: Infinity Land – Biffy Clyro

Released:2004

Tracks:13

Infinity Land, the third album from Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro, is certainly not to everyone’s tastes, but do I look like an ‘everyone’ to you! Heck no… Let’s take a look… Or should that be a listen?

I have a rather varied group of friends, from all corners of the world, and at some point I have tried to ween them on to Biffy Clyro, but for a lot of them, Biffy are just too… confusing, for want of a better word. While you can tell that they are a rock group from the get-go, the songs have a sort of strange structure to them, and often use off beat times, which for some people, is just too much. Well they can bugger off back to their by-the-numbers-rent-a-pop-star music, and I’ll stick to imaginative music, that does its own thing, as Biffy Clyro are an awesome band! (I’m not sure where that rant came from… Sorry..)

Anyway, there is an album I have to talk about!

Glitter and Trauma starts us off, and is certainly a track that will give you an idea of what to expect from the rest of the album, in terms of tone. It has some really varied sections in the song, and the way it changes from one to another is really nice. I think that’s a real talent that Biffy have. They never just has verse, bridge, chorus, repeat, dont forget the middle eight… They just seem to have songs with 5 different ‘parts’ and mash them together… And it works really well.

We then have ‘Strung to your Ribcage’. A short heavy blast, which shows the surprisingly good range of lead singer Simon Neil, starting with some indecipherable screaming, moving on to some nice soft vocals, and everything in between. The length of the song is just right too, as it doesn’t start to overstay its welcome.

The album as a really good pacing to it, and really, there aren’t really any dud songs that stand out as fillers. Even the shorter songs, like the aforementioned ‘Strung to your Ribcage’, ‘Got Wrong’ and ‘There’s no such man as Crasp’, which is an acapella track, is actually a very fitting departure from distorted guitars, and the minute and a half-ish break, makes a surprising difference, and introduces the last third of the album nicely.

The only real gripe I had with the album was ‘Wave Upon Wave’, which isn’t at all a bad song, but it did seem to go on for about 4 hours, I just feel they could have shaved 30 seconds, to a minute off of it. Having said that, I did rather enjoy the ending of the track, as it had the usual Biffy sudden change to an almost entirely different song. And then there is ‘There is no Such Thing as a Jaggy Snake’, which again, isn’t a bad song, it’s just the first minute or so is just screaming, which doesn’t do anything for me, after this is over though, we have a pretty good song that emerges.

Finishing with ‘Pause and Turn it Up’ a great song, slower than most of the album, but makes you sit up listen to it with some really nice guitar sounds, and again, Simon Neil’s vocal range, is really nice, combined with the Scottish accent he sings with, it just works really well. And don’t forget to wait the extra 20 minutes at the end to get a rather disturbing little poem read to you…

Skip it: There’s No Such Thing As A Jaggy Snake.

Skip to: One Word Comes To Mind.

Overall:

4 out of 5

(in case anyone is wondering, I am not trying to choose albums I like, I just put my iTunes on shuffle, and talk about whatever album plays.. I just happen to have awesome taste in music!)

MUSIC REVIEW: Acolyte by Delphic

Tracks: 10

Released: 2010

Acolyite is the first album from English based alt-dance group Delphic. It manages to combine some great synth sounds, with some nice guitar riffs, and some excellent beats to create an excellent album that’s a treat from start to finish!

The album starts with a nice opener; Clarion Call, which has a really nice build up to get you into the mood for the rest of the album. This is followed by Doubt, which shows off Rick Boardman’s nice vocal talents, and, you guessed it, has a great chorus. This Momentary gives off a real late 90’s vibe with its heavy beat all the way through, but has the modern touch with the added synth sounds. Its a nice combo, and a catchy song.

The middle few tracks of the album keep a steady pace, Red Lights seems a little more relaxed, but then Acolyte comes in with a great tempo, and actually keeps you interested for the entire 8 and a half minutes of it, which isn’t always the case with tracks that long. It is definitely a song to get you dancing, and the most dance focused song on the album in my opinion, and Halcyon is also a great foot-tapping song… Complete with a great chorus!!

As I’ve said before, I think an end of an album should leave you either wanting more, or with at least some kind of emotion. The last few tracks on this album try very hard to do this, with Counterpoint being a great track, and possibly my favourite, unfortunately, this is followed by the, to be honest, rather confusing and pointless Ephemera.. Which is just 2 minutes of ambiance. It just doesn’t seem to have any place here, and as the penultimate track, makes the album lose some steam. A bit of a disappointment.

We end with Remain. Which is another more chilled track, which has some nice vocals, and the bass line is really nice, along with a good piano riff, however it did have a rather abrupt ending, which while didn’t take too much away from the song, did make me (literally) say ‘Oh, is that it?’.

HOWEVER! Overall, its a great album. Mostly excellent, well produced (look at me pretending I know what I’m talking about) tracks. It is just a little let down by the slightly anti-climactic end to an otherwise great experience.

Skip to: Counterpoint

Skip it: Ephemera.

Overall: 4 out of 5

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Begin To Hope – Regina Spektor

Tracks: 12

I was a bit dubious when I decided to review this album. I’ve actually got (and paid for) all of Spektors albums, but never got round to listening to them until now. I think I’ve been missing our all this time. I love it when the first song on an album puts me in a good mood, and that’s exactly what Fidelity did.

Really from then on the album carries on with some really nice piano riffs (do they call them riffs for piano??). The lyrics are really great, listen to them carefully and you can see the hidden (and not so hidden) meanings in the songs after a few listens. Samson is a great example of this.

Spektor has a really nice voice, but, I did sometimes find the uh-uh-uh-oh-oh-oh’s that she does a bit tedious at times (this is actually the reason I’ve been putting off listening to them). Track 2, Better, doesn’t have any of these, and is a very uplifting song. And if you aren’t tapping your feet to Hotel Song, I will assume its because you don’t have feet. Great song! Really catchy.

Track 7, Apres Moi didn’t do much for me, and seeing as usually track 7 is reserved for the better songs (this is because in the days of vinyl, that would be the last track before you had to turn it over, so they would put the best tracks there to make you listen to the rest of them – fact fans), this was a bit of a let down.

The album does have a nice feel to it… It has a definite indie-romantic comedy drama movie vibe (500 Days of Summer and Garden State immediately come in to my head). Though this does make sense as they are the films that introduced to to Spektor in the first place.

There last few tracks seem to be a change of tempo, and bring the album down a little for me, however the final track, ‘Summer In The City’ is another great track, with some really nice lyrics, a very nice ending, to an overall, nice album.

 

Skip it – Apres Moi.

Skip to – Better

Verdict:

4 out of 5