And so to the biggest disappointment since I started this blog.....

John Grant's debut album Queen of Denmark has to be of my top twenty albums of all time but the follow up Pale Green Ghosts won't get many repeat plays

Queen of Denmark was full of lush strings and the band Midlake lending warmth and feeling to some very witty and biting lyrics, whereas on the follow up Mr Grant has relocated to Iceland and gone electronica.

The cold backing has no soul and makes the lyrics feel like the self pitying whining of a man who feels the world is against him. Tracks such as Why Don't You Love Me Anymore and Sensitive New Age Guy don't bear listening to more than once.

A couple of redeeming songs can be found, the 7 min plus Glacier is the closest in feel to the stellar debut track I Wanna Go to Marz - all grand piano and orchestration. GMF is lyrically brilliant where John Grant explains in detail why he is the greatest mother f**ker you will ever meet.

And that song may well explain why this albums fails so spectacularly

I blame the Prog magazine but a couple of reviews of really obscure stuff piqued my interest....

Silver Pyre are a one man band from somewhere in the South west and the album AeXe is a peculiar little thing. There is a lot of electronica going on with just a touch of hippies dancing on ley lines about it. Half the songs clock in over 6 minutes but not overstaying their welcome. The vocals are very simple, no attempt to hit difficult notes and not designed to distract from the music.
The near instrumental opener Copper Findings draws you in with some very unusual percussion and rhythms while Calendar is a really weird tale of Mayan, Julian and Roman calendars spoken in an atonal manner over a stately beat created on some sort of xylophone

A very unusual album which is worth a listen in a darkened room sometime

                                                                                                                        

Whereas Silver Pyre is a one man band Then Comes Silence are a mystery band who won't confirm whose in the band !

A Swedish band who have obviously listened to far too much early Joy Division and Bauhaus. This self titled debut album is very retro. Song titles like To the Bone (We are Doomed) and Death by a Frozen Heart tell you all you need to know about how this sounds. Some great crashing guitar and vocals to make Ian Curtis proud

This is old school goth for those in long leather coats and an aversion to daylight

From a recommendation of a friend based on a recommendation to them....

Phosphorescent are a one man band and Muchacho is the sound of a man going to Mexico to recover from a bad experience with a woman.

There's a prevailing americana vibe with a downbeat view on love. The occasional splash of mariachi brass echoes the Mexican location and thoughts of Neil Young came to mind while listening.

It's a pleasant album but lacks that something that makes you want to immediately repeat the listening experience. The one stand out track is The Quotidian Beasts and no I don't know what it means either. This is a 7 minute epic featuring some great guitar work (both acoustic, electric and slide), horns and a chorus that goes 'Whooooooooo' and nothing much else. This is the track that does make me reach for the replay button

Worth a listen but can't really pass on the recommendation

Now this album won't be for everyone..... Sweden's Cult of Luna have created a black metal album based on Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Vertikal is bleak and uncompromising piece of music. This is not a collection of song but a living breathing concept album. The sort of album that has to be done in one sitting. Songs titles aren't important but the 18 minute Vicarious Redemption sits of the heart of it, full of brutal vocals and pummelling guitars but with time change aplenty and short melodic bursts. In Awe Of shifts rhythmically through its 9 minutes but the feeling is this is more than the sums of it's part.

If you can live with the complex and unrelenting assault it give the senses then this could be The Wall for the black metal generation

Two quick singles to review.....

Firstly the new offering from The Eden House. A two track taster for the forthcoming full album. The first track, Bad Men (on there way to do bad things) is a bit different to their usual fare. The song has the feel of early Berlin, before Top Gun and ends with a female spoken sections which echoes Madonna's Erotica ! It's a grower but takes time

The second track, Survival Instinct is much more in the style you expect. Building slowly before soaring vocals and guitar take you headlong towards the climatic finish. If this is only a B side then the album will be stunning.....

The second single also suggests interesting times ahead. Amorphis has released Hopeless Days as the first single from the album of the same name. The first thing to strike you is the music is MUCH heavier than on The Beginning Of Time album. The second thing is that the death metal growls have been ditched completely.

So the vocals have become more mainstream but the music is going the other way.... The album should be fun

Trying to view a release on I-Tunes but pushed purchase instead of wish list !

As it turns out a reasonable mistake - I've bought the new EP from Newsted.

To be honest, if you'd never have heard of Jason Newsted you would have guessed from this that Metallica were an influence...

Four tracks of bludgeoning metal reminiscent of ....And Justice For All. It's solid but not not hugely inspiring, very 80's post thrash sound

Four tracks is about right with the lead track Soldierhead being the pick. The EP is called Metal for a reason

A real find thanks to a free CD from Classic Rock !

Shovels & Rope are a male/female duo from the heart of the US of A - Now that may sound familiar but this is what the Civil Wars would sound like if they were both related and married to each other....

Acoustic guitars, harmonica and kick drum give the album O' Be Joyful a real spit and sawdust feel.
Songs a plenty about loving among the good ol' boys such as Keeper and then Hail, Hail adds in some riotous horns on a song extolling the delights of rock n' roll

The two minute blast of real country rock has one of the finest titles ever of Kemba's Got the Cabbage Moth Blues

The only low spot would be ending on the very downbeat This Means War but after the first ten songs it's a minor misstep

Though not yet released in the UK, get yourself some bourbon, a cousin you fancy and have yourself a hoedown with a truly great album