Peace // Birthdays, London - Review

The 1st of May was the second of four sold out nights in London for the Btown-made-its Peace. The recently renovated Birthdays did not know what hit it when the chimey start to their first song "Delicious" kicked in, right until the drummer threw his sticks behind him at the velvet draped wall.

SO psychedelic!

The thing about indie music is it can either be a fresh new take on guitar clattering, melody matching music; or a dreadfully boring rehash of what wasn't even very good 20 years ago, let alone a dreary-weathered 2013. Don't let first impressions get to you with Peace: you've got to give Peace a chance, and they certainly grabbed it with the full force of a top 20 album. This means something - guitar music is on the rise.

Some call us the Two Harry's, and neither of us need boyfriends (read: badge)

After the rocking O'Children warmed up the already warm crowd, it was time for the main act to take to the stage. They started things off... pacy, shall we say? "Delicious" received a rapturous reception from the hoard of fans, who lapped up the music they were presented. This was followed by the hit single "Follow Baby", with the chorus that sounds like it will be added as an 11th commandment, if the crowd are anything to go by: "Follow baby, we're gonna live forever baby".

If any new band was going to start a new religious cult, it would be this lot. Chanting throughout the night for an early demo "Vials", they received a wry smile from Doug Castle, the lead guitarist, throughout the night. The band have a certain dynamic on stage, with the pair of brothers Harrison and Sam Koisseur providing a rhythm to dance to in the form of sways and, in Harry's case, satsuma. Of course, only at an indie gig. Oh, and I have one, as well as the set list.

Which leads nicely on to my next point. The band certainly have the tunes - their singles "Wraith" and "Bloodshake" were received with a far from icy reception - but will they stick or twist, or disappear into the psychedelic sunset? Their only weak song if the night was "Scumbag", which should of perhaps been swapped for the faster paced bonus track "Drain", with its clashing middle 8. But, scribbled in the rather lovely handwriting of Harry was "forever" in the corner of the set list. I for one hope they will be here for a long, long time after this splendid gig.

8/10

Turns out saving Rock and Roll is pretty hard

So when something needs saving, it is normally pretty agreeable that it needs saving, such as Africa from poverty or London from pollution. But what happens when people don't even know what they're trying to save? It just turns into a blind war zone with people double checking every 6 minutes whether they're fighting for any particular reason (Millwall matches, every week). The trouble with Fall Out Boy trying to Save Rock and Roll is that, well... people aren't that sure on what Rock and Roll is. They probably haven't heard it this slick, that's for sure.

With Fall Out Boy, the fans seem to be the kind that absolutely adore the band, despite them changing their sound - I don't think they have up until Folie - but as of My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up), they have overstepped the mark according to some sections of the fandom. I hope they realise that all this fuss of programmed drum beats, synthesisers etc. etc. is present on their last two efforts, yes? Oh, you do?

Than we may begin.

The Phoenix rips into the heart of the album clinically. The London Symphony Orchestra provide a very Ill Manors by Plan B backbone (the theme of "hey, I recognise that melody" appears very often) to this grandiose song. Both this and the aforementioned MSKWYDITD are very Fall Out Boy. I can't stand the criticism: the great lyrics are there, the guitar IS THERE (TRUST ME) and so is Patrick's splendid voice. 

Patrick's vocals do step up a notch on this album in particular, with no more "THIS AINT A SCENE, IT'S A GAA DAA ARR RAA". His voice, as he noted on his rather active Twitter account, is far less layered on this album, and it is clearly better for it. High pitches surround our ears, and he still claims to prefer lower registers - take the beautiful Just One Yesterday for a reason why, and a reminder of Rolling In The Deep (#2). The lyrics from Pete are as inventive as ever, as he ponders on Miss Missing you "The person that you'll take a bullet for is behind the trigger" and even seductively uses a police arrest line: "Anything you say, can and will be held against you, so only say my name, it will be held against you". There's nothing as rocky and hard hitting as before, but the lyrics certainly are FoB at heart, and not as Patrick infested as the music. 

The songs on this album are incredibly catchy... pop. Very good pop, too. This is a Rock and Roll band doing what Rock and Roll does: adapt with the times, and show "them" a thing or two in the process, and boy do they. Whether it is the 10 second slight dubstep on Death Valley - as Patrick pointed out, none of the WOMP WOMP WOMP, WAA WAA WAA crap that you hear today - or the Hey Soul Sister rhythm and melody/song on Young Volcanoes (#3).

The collaborations have been much discussed and I have to disagree with some critics who claim they distract from the real music on this album; they add variety, something that is often missing from bands these days (well hello there Dido/Ben Howard/Dido/Black Keys/Dido). The album plunges into the past and present, picking out excellently relevant and musically exceptional artists, with Elton John and Courtney Love the stand outs. Foxes does a sterling job on Just One Yesterday, a rather understated accompaniment, and Big Sean does a catchy verse on The Mighty Fall, the riffiest song on the album. Yeah, riffiest is a word, and probably the least likely word to be invented on what you probably think is a pop album - it isn't, how many times now?

As Courtney Love rants about PowerPoints and Elton John rhymes for the 23908 time "desperation" and "inspiration", it boils down to the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities: the music. And it is good. Very good in fact, after their worst fan rated album yet in Folie, although their most praised by critics at the same time. This album therefore should get an 11 if fans were to go by, but instead it receives a very solid 8 for a very solid album.

Well done Fall Out Boy, rock on.

"We don't know when to quit oh oh"

8/10

Long time, no update

It's sad that I have to write this. I have dozens of draft articles, but I've been so bogged down, either a Justin Timberlake album review wouldn't make up for it. Anyway, I have to keep studying!

Until I have free time,
See you soon.

Is this good...or...wait, what am I even listening to? - Darwin Deez - 'Songs for Imaginative People' Review

BREAKING NEWS: Kooky kool kid Darwin Deez dazzles fans with new album of... jam sessions?

I really just can't put my finger on it. It is like he has a new cat that he's let loose on conveniently lying about guitars, keyboards, beat machines, oh and the mixer while he's at it. Why not muddle everything up at once, hey?

Before I make it sound like utter shit it definitely is not You Me At Six-bad. It has it's moments. It's just they all last for 20 seconds, maybe 30 at a push? Then some other crazy idea comes in. "I KNOW, LET'S CUT THIS AWESOME RIFF AND HAVE ME TALKING ABOUT ALBUM SALES FOR A BIT." Yeah, well you might not have a lot to say after this one, Deez.

Their are at least 3 good songs on here, in terms of the radio friendly Darwin Deez that we know of.  Free (The Editorial Me) is a masterstroke of a first single to promote the album. Snazzy, quirky and pretty darn awesome. It has some memorable lyrics, of none I can actually remember after spending the rest of the 40 minutes trying to decipher the rest, sadly.  Redshift is decent too, with classic Deez guitar throughout, a rarity in this album. Guitar is throughout, but not in a pattern of any sort, with the musical scape cutting and changing like that dickhead driver that cut me up on the A12 on the way home yesterday in the snow. Hope he reads this, dick.

I've just done what Darwin acomplished right there: lost my attention for the music. You see, to like Darwin's music now, you have to have a bigger attention span than he has collectively over the whole album. Pretty easy task right? But there's a problem, again.

Imagine a meter, from left to right. Left being "not paying attention, I like ironing boards.", Right being "Let me pause this and write the lyric down and think of how it resembles chapter two from Of Mice and Men." Now imagine their is only a 1mm gap between left and right, and that you have to balance between the two. Good luck. Seriously.

Overall, the album is good. It definitely is for imaginative people, that is for sure. It's also for sure that self-producing the album is a car crash and written off for the record label, virtually no other singles for this album. Having said all of this, it is a fine album to listen to over several playbacks. It's like getting a dog after having a cat, you'll grow to like it eventually. Maybe...?

The above was all written from the insides of my crazy head - sincerely, Darwin Deez

7/10

Fall out Boy reunion, next Reading headliner and a new Tribes song!

I figured the above image is highly relevant to today, HOPEFULLY. As in, HOPEFULLY in 12 minutes time, the band will announce the end of their hiatus. Surely they will?

Now, if they do, it is great for many reasons. One, they are all great musicians, they've proven that in their side projects, they're all great. So, when they come back together they should be pretty damn awesome - as they always have been. Maybe Patrick can contribute to the lyrics now, after doing *everything* on Soul Punk. This should be pretty fucking awesome.

They bloody did:

I like it, I like it a lot. Listen to the original if interested here:

The second main thing that would make today special is the Reading announcement. I want it to be Biffy Clyro (likely) personally, or Linkin Park (Oh, a pig flying!). Would it not be awesome though if it was not just a coincidence and Fall Out Boy play, at the very least, or headline (Another bloody pig flying, what are the chances!).

Some more music was announced for Benicassim, my festival of choice this summer. The Courteeners will do just nicely, as will Dizzee Rascal at 5am!

Finally, to top it all off: Tribes are Zane Lowe's hottest record in the world at 7:30pm tonight. Hopefully it isn't just one minute long, and it is hotter than just one minute... anyways, I hope it follows in the brilliant foot steps of every bloody step they've taken.

Let's see if this all transpires, and if so, prepare for my next blog post: The Take over, the breaks over!