Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell

Sufjan Stevens is a hard chap to pin down. Since the beloved grandeur of his Illinois record, everybody’s favourite Christian indie-folk singer-songwriter has released two lengthy Christmas collections, a multimedia project based upon the Brooklyn-Queens-Expressway and dropped a hip hop album with his surprisingly cohesive band Sisyphus. The man has shown unpredictable eccentricity making it impossible to guess his next move, however Carrie & Lowell, his seventh solo album and first in five years, represents a regression of sorts sonically while simultaneously breaking new ground thematically.

Carrie & Lowell is the sound of Stevens trying to make sense of the confused mixture of feelings he experienced surrounding the death of a mother he hardly knew, and while it sounds a bit mean to say it, the results are heartbreakingly pretty. Regularly surrounded by whimsical horns or crushing electronics, here Stevens is naked, supported by little more than nimble acoustic arpeggios and reverberated piano chords – a far cry from the digital bombast of 2010’s Age Of Adz. While there are instrumental moments of beauty aplenty such as the dancing keyboard left-turn in ‘Should Have Known Better’ or the walls of ambient noise that close several tracks,Carrie & Lowell is most definitely an album told through its poetic words rather than its sounds.

Stevens has always preferred to focus on the tales of others – look no further than the folklore of Illinois or the Christianity-celebrating hymns of Seven Swans – but here he accepts the sole focus of his songs for the first time as a way of coping with the intense grief that threatened to derail his life. Left by his Mother, Carrie, at 12 months old, these stories centre around the few memories he has of her and his unrelenting longing for a relationship that never really existed. Rather than resenting Carrie for leaving though, Stevens accepts her actions and touchingly sings of pure adoration for her as on opening track ‘Death With Dignity’ – “I forgive you mother, I can hear you and I want to be near you but every road leads to an end”. Elsewhere on ‘John My Beloved’ and ‘No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross’ Stevens turns to his dependable faith to provide him with shelter from the sorrow, but it is the haunting centrepiece ‘Fourth Of July’ that packs the heaviest punch.

Stevens’ voice never rises above a breezy whisper but every other line he sings will knock you down.

9.2

 

Originally published 31st March at: http://audioaddictmag.com/2015/03/31/review-sufjan-stevens-carrie-lowell/

Jamie xx – ‘Loud Places (feat. Romy)’

It’s been clear for a good while now that Jamie xx possesses a jaw-dropping talent of merging disparate sounds together from the restrained hush of his band The xx’s material to his impressive reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s I’m New Here record and his masterful juxtaposition of electronic genres in the restless solo singles that he’s released since. ‘Loud Places’ however – the first taste of his imminent debut solo album In Colour along with ‘Gosh’ – is perhaps the most gorgeous piece of music that he has lent his name to yet.

Bandmate Romy Madley Croft lends her gentle vocals but never rises above a whisper, rather letting a perfectly placed Idris Muhammad sample steal the show. The song builds and builds as Jamie piles on the layers until it erupts in a wonderfully controlled burst of sound that makes you feel as if coloured confetti is raining down from the sky as you skateboard around the empty streets of London. Maybe the video may have had something to do with that image too actually.

Originally published 28th March at:  http://audioaddictmag.com/2015/03/28/hey-listen-28th-march-2015/

Lion Babe – ‘Wonder Woman’

‘Jump Hi’ acted as an exciting introduction into Lion Babe’s music no doubt helped by the star-quality of its Childish Gambino feature but the duo’s latest single ‘Wonder Woman’ which premiered as Annie Mac’s hottest record in the world blows that away well and truly.

A guy called Pharrell Williams – aka ‘that dude who sang that song about being rather joyful’ -produced the track and like most things he touches it’s a densely layered pop gem. ‘Wonder Woman’ seems more three-dimensional than its predecessor with a grooving shuffle of a beat, vocals filling every space and Jillian Hervey showcases her range moreso as she dances over the track. Expect big things from this two.

Originally published 21st March at:  http://audioaddictmag.com/2015/03/23/hey-listen-21st-march-2015/

Audio Addict Issue #22

The March Issue #22 of Audio Addict is my second edition of the magazine as front section editor. Inside this installment are interviews with Lights, Enter Shikari and Peace as well as an extensive Foreword section introducing Kevin Abstract and Eric Dingus and loads more.

On top of  my editorial role I wrote a piece on the prominence of producers in popular music today, an angle on the use of crowdfunding in music and contributed to a small feature – maybe familiar to you if you’ve read Up The Monitors – imagining musicians switching careers rather drastically.

The magazine can be read above or here.

Audio Addict Issue #21

The December Issue #21 of Audio Addict is the first edition of the magazine with me and my buddies in charge. It contains interviews with cover stars Little Dragon, Twin Atlantic, Years & Years, Mallory Knox and Kate Boy and is host to a whole bunch of other features and reviews.

In addition to overseeing the front section and features within the mag, I also wrote pieces on the concept of the guilty pleasure, reviews of albums by Ryan Hemsworth and TheStand4rd and contributed to the hilarious/silly Grading Rap Lyrics feature. I’m very proud of it all.

The magazine can be read above or if you prefer, here. Enjoy!

ISLA – Official Isle Of Wight Festival 2014 Magazine

 

Working as both a writer and interviewer I was part of the team that put together the 2014 edition of Isla – the official magazine for the Isle Of Wight Festival. In the mag you can read my interview with the festival’s lovely head honcho John Giddings, my write-up of sets by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Suede, The Horrors, Rudimental, Peace and John Newman and a short introducing piece on grungey London three-piece Beasts.

Also you can see my beautiful mug  on page 4, going by the name of my alter-ego Herbie!

The magazine can be read above or if you prefer, here.

 

Up The Monitors Magazine

Last year me and my compadres created our own magazine and website named Up The Monitors which covered some of our favourite hip-hop, electronic and indie music. We also took it as a chance to introduce our fantastic sense of humour to the world so prepare yourself.

I took on the role of front section and news editor for the mag and I also wrote the cover feature – an interview with lovable underground rapper Antwon, a news story about Trent Reznor, an introducing piece for Kitkkola, a fun li’l section imagining rappers in a more common line of work, a think-piece about the worryingly increasing use of holograms of deceased stars in concert, reviews of albums from Tobacco, Sisyphus and a live review of a Danny Brown show.  Needless to say, we were pretty busy with this.

The thing is also packed full of great work from my coursemates. The magazine can be read above or alternatively here.

Tame Impala – ‘Let It Happen’

Despite having a prominent role on one of the year’s biggest pop album’s (Mark Ronson’s Uptown Special), Kevin Parker of Tame Impala apparently doesn’t seem too into the idea of shooting for popstardom given that ‘Let It Happen’, his band’s first fresh piece of material since 2012’s lauded Lonerism is almost eight minutes long.

Parker continues with the troubled solitude-seeking lyricism that both Innerspeaker and Lonerism championed as the track revolves around an infinite groove which loops on itself continuously before revealing a beastly guitar riff in its tail. Credit to Parker is due, as the whole thing glides by effortlessly in a way that few songs of this length can.

Originally published March 14th at:  http://audioaddictmag.com/2015/03/14/hey-listen-14th-march/

Cashmere Cat – ‘Adore (feat. Ariana Grande)’

Continuing his blazing ascent to stardom Norwegian producer Cashmere Cat has called in a favour from buddy Ariana Grande for bubbling smash ‘Adore’ and surprise, surprise, it’s a beauty.

The song recreates the magic from the pair’s last partnership on Grande’s ‘Be My Baby’ and in reality could have slotted in on her fantastically fun My Everything quite nicely. Cashmere definitely lets loose in this one more however as the gorgeous chorus explodes with lush layers of percussion and twinkling synths while Grande powerful voice continues to dazzle. Now two pop bangers out of two attempts, let’s hope this isn’t the last time we see this partnership together.

Originally published March 7th 2014 at:  http://audioaddictmag.com/2015/03/08/hey-listen-7th-march-2015/

Kanye West – ‘All Day (feat. Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom & Paul McCartney)’

If you haven’t seen or at least heard about Kanye West‘s furious debuting of ‘All Day’ at the BRIT awards the other week then I’ll assume that you’ve just been too absorbed in watching Madonna‘s unfortunate fall to have noticed but the performance was fire, and not just because those two giant flamethrowers either.

This week saw the studio version of the track and while Kanye may not be yelling quite as much and isn’t accompanied by a daunting gang of grime’s hottest MCs behind him, we are treated to a completely new insane final minute of the song. After the bludgeoning swagger that West throws in your face for the first four minutes, things take an unexpected turn as we bump into new frequent Kanye collaborator Paul McCartney‘s ‘Two-Finger Chord & Whistle’ that has it’s own story before rampant distorted synths ambush McCartney and do battle until nothing remains. So Help Me God can’t come soon enough.

Originally published March 7th at:  http://audioaddictmag.com/2015/03/08/hey-listen-7th-march-2015/