Wolf Alice - My Love is Cool

 

"My Love is Cool" is the debut album by London indie rockers Wolf Alice.  Wolf Alice formed in 2010, while this album came out in 2015.  They are a band I have always been aware of and back in 2018 I did see them when they supported the Foo Fighters.  Here is an extract of the live review I did for that gig talking about their performance: "They do seem like a hype band amongst the alternative music press. Personally, I didn't think the sound setup was that good for them which didn't do them any favours. They were ok but I can't see myself investigating their stuff any further. ".    And I didn't investigate them any further. Well, that's up until a month ago when I heard their single from their up-and-coming 3rd album "Blue weekend" and the track "Smile".  This pulled me in and before long I ordered their first 2 albums.  And for the last month I have been listening to Wolf Alice more than any other band.

The first song I want to talk about off "My Love is Cool" is 3rd track off the album "Your Loves Whore".  This song is 4 minutes and 57 seconds long. But it feels like there is a million and one different ideas crammed into the one song.  And somehow, they have crafted it in a way that not only does it make sense but it is an absolute masterpiece of indie rock gold.  They have played about with the song structure the way the likes of Biffy Clyro do but in their own way.  Those effective pauses through the versus and towards the end of the song Ellies vocals which feel like they are more carefree are some of my favourite moments from the track.  Another is just how pronounced the bass is.  Often the bass is there just to glue the song together and you don't really notice it.  But here Wolf Alice use it and it often can be seen in the foreground of the song which gives them another outlet.

While "Your Loves Whore" is my favourite song off the album, this is an album that I am enjoying immensely.  And seeing that the album has been certified gold in the UK and reached number 2 in the charts in the UK it is clear other folk do agree.  It is quite a diverse album too. "Giant Peach" for example is one of the heavier tracks on the album and has more of a punky, carefree kind of feel to it.  While "Swallowed Tail" has drummer, Joel Amey take up lead vocals, giving Ellie a rest.  This track is a slower downbeat track which has a false ending before kicking in with a splendid outro to the track.  The likes of "Silk" and "Bros" are great singles.  "Fluffy" and "Freazy" feel like sister tracks.  

In all, I got it wrong with Wolf Alice, this is not a hype band. This is the real band.  They have a great vocalist in Ellie Rowsell.  Their songs can be complicated when you investigate them but on the surface, they are outstandingly brilliant. I now can't wait for their 3rd album "Blue Weekend" to come out and looking forward to getting my teeth sunk into 2nd album "Visions of a life" a bit more too.

Olivia Rodrigo - Sour

A couple of weeks ago I was watching the 2021 Brit awards and one of the standout performances of the night was Olivia Rodrigo.  Prior to this I had never heard of her but the thing that drew me towards her was her sublime vocal performance and I did think I must check her out.  A few weeks later I was looking through the new releases on Spotify and noticed a track by her.  I played it and instantly began looking for more stuff by her.  I had a look at her Spotify profile to find she had only released one album which happened to have been released that day.  I then saw that one of her songs "driving license" had 750 million streams. I was a bit taken aback by this.  750 million! That is incredible for someone who has only just released her debut and it did make me think how out of touch I am having never heard of her.

So, it made me wonder how on earth could she have so many streams.  Turns out before she turned her attention to music, she was an actress appearing on some Disney series including High School musical.  She released the single "driving license" which broke various Spotify streaming records including most streams in a day ever for a non-holiday song.  So, looking at this brief blurb about her you'd think she has achieved so much with her life.  But what's more amazing is that she has done all this, and she is only 18.

"Sour" is the debut album by Olivia and starts with "brutal" which is a song which feels like it has a bit of a misleading start with some gentle strings to break you in. Before Olivia leaps into this punchy punky type of track delivering vocal after vocal with attitude.  The end of the song is gentler, and I would say sets you up more for what overall the rest of the album is like. More downbeat but there are quite a few curve balls along the way.

Now to go back to "driving licence" that song that put her on the map and has really made her an overnight sensation to everyone bar me of course lol. But I must add when I did hear this eventually it did win me over.  Strip back this song and the music behind the vocals is incredibly simple.  For most of it, it feels like the same note is being continuously being played on the piano repeatedly.  If you heard this without the vocals it would be a turn off and basically a very bland song.  But with Olivia's vocals and lyrics it transforms the song into another dimension.  It shows off her full range and the reason for the tune itself being simple is to let Rodrigo's vocals take centre stage where they belong.

"deja vu" though is where Olivia's vocals share centre stage and it's not with a guitar or piano but with the drums.  That's right there is an amazing drum loop in this song which you don't feel in the other song. It's fantastic.  The feel-good song of the album is "good for u" which has such a fun and uplifting chorus.  It does remind me of a Paramore song/song but I can't place which song at the moment.  As the album moves on the songs get more stripped back often just with an acoustic guitar to let Olivia's vocals once again shine through.

Overall, I think really that's what this album is all about: Olivia's vocal performance.  It is simply phenomenal.  While there are different types of tracks to keep things interesting to be releasing this kind of album which is as good as this at only 18 years old is some achievement.  One of Olivia's influences is Taylor Swift who of course had great success at a young age, and I don't see why Olivia can have just as successful career as Taylor's based on this debut.

 

Myles Kennedy - The Ides of March

"The Ides of March" is the 2nd solo album by Alter Bridge frontman, Myles Kennedy. Not forgetting the singer/guitarist from Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and he conspirators.  Myles musical projects just keep coming and he seems to have found a nice operating rhythm of balancing all his projects. With the pandemic it seems with the lack of touring Myles has found himself (like many others) more creative than ever which means fans are reaping the rewards.  But what does "The Ides of March" have to offer?"

The title track on the album and the second single "The ides of March" certainly is a standout for many reasons. At first, I thought it might be a shoutout to Iron Maiden who also have a track of the same name.  But it represents the 74th day in the Roman calendar, corresponding to the 15th of March, which appropriately is the day this song was released in 2021.  It really is a mammoth of a song too.  Sitting at 7 minutes 30 seconds its up there with some of the longer songs Myles wrote with Alter Bridge and that's both in terms of length and quality.

But while its easy to compare this length of song to the likes of Stairway (Led Zeppelin) and Blackbird (Alter Bridge).  And Stairway vibes can be felt in the opening notes of the track. Myles pulls away from that as the guitars kick in properly.  The first couple of versus sound like it should be a soundtrack to a James Bond film. Then there is a long and winding guitar solo.  But I think the thing I love the most about this song is the seamless transitions between the different sections of the track. Before the long guitar solo for instance, it's almost as if you are climbing up a ladder to the start of the solo.  It works well. Then to finish the song there is another small solo before returning to how the song starts to finish off.

So, if "The ides of March" is the "Blackbird" of the album.  What is the "Rise Today" or "Before tomorrow comes" (also tracks from Alter bridge's 2nd album "Blackbird").  Well roll up first, the first single to come from the album "In Stride".  This track symbolised the more up-tempo and upbeat direction Myles was heading in with his second album as he plus in his electric guitar in comparison to his predominantly acoustic debut "Year of the tiger". "In Stride" has this killer riff using the slide guitar to great effect. I thought this was so good as despite all the bands and projects Myles has worked on over the years. With his solo stuff he has still managed to create something which is separate and has it's own sound which is a great feet.

I would say "Get Along" is the "Rise today" of the album as well as being a great tune. It's the one that really has a powerful message and is the way Myles is trying to communicate with the world as he sings "Why can't we all just get along".  There are many great moments on this album as well as these key tracks.  I would say my favourite has to be album closer "Worried Mind" which has some great guitar work in it.  It's not all up-tempo, for example "Wanderlust" and "Love Rain" down are some of the slower tracks on the album but still just as good.

Overall, Myles continues to set such a high standard really in whatever he touches.  I think his Alter Bridge band mate Mark Tremonti often steals the limelight when it comes to his guitar process, but Myles proves here that he is such a talented musician and songwriter.

 

Royal Blood - Typhoons

Royal Blood are Mike Kerr on bass and vocals and Ben Thatcher on drums.  They burst onto the scene in 2014 with their self-titled debut album which I thought was a flawless album.  Their sophomore effort "When did we get so dark" where although the singles were good, I thought was a patchy album. But nevertheless, I looked forward to seeing what they would come up with their 3rd album "Typhoons".  How the name of the album came about was simple as they just loved the song "Typhoons".

Royal Blood have always been known for their infectious grooves and when "Trouble coming" was released last year it looked like that was set to continue into their 3rd album.  But "Trouble coming" is a bit of a strange song in a way.  If you listen to the guitar and the drums it’s a feel good, upbeat anthem.  But in contrast if you listen to the lyrics, it's a reality check for someone in the depth of a mental health crisis.  The verse which goes "In my reflection, I see signs of psychosis, I try to pay them no attention, can't keep them under the service."  Particularly strikes home for me. Having had psychosis, it is a truly horrible thing to go through and it can last months if gone untreated. The thing is when you first get it you probably won't know what it is till you get diagnosed with it.   But I think it is good Royal Blood are bringing it into the public eye to maybe help people better understand the signs.  But with the serious undertones of the song, the irony is it is such a feel-good song which doesn't really make sense but at the same time it works.

"Trouble coming" is the first track on the album and really sets the scene.  They’re here to get the nation up and rocking again with deep Muse esque anthems.   The likes of "Oblivion", "Boilermaker" and "Mad Visions" are probably my favourites on the album. However, I wouldn't describe it as a complete album.  "One and Million" for instance starts off good and continues to get better throughout the song. But the outro for me goes on a bit too much as Mike Kerr's vocals just become disinteresting and dronie.  But the album is brought back to life again with "Limbo" which has a Daft Punk style intro before kicking back into Royal Blood mode.  This track sits at just under 5 minutes and in contrast to "One and Million" I just don't want this track to stop its so good.

Some tracks which don't hit the mark at all for me are "Who needs friends" and "Either you want it" which even then I would consider ok.  But the fact I've only mentioned two and half songs which don't quite do it for me you can see that most of it does.  I think though that their last track "All we have is now" may seem like a short, kind of anti climatic ending to the album as it seems to just disappear too quickly. I think it’s one of their most brave and ambitious tracks to date. And I'm not talking about brave and ambitious in music generally as hundreds of bands have songs that sounds like this.  But I have never heard them use keyboards or attempt this kind of track before so kudos to them for trying it.  I do think it is slighlty too short and room for improvement.  When you look at Wolf Alice's latest piano track really that is what I am comparing it too as Wolf set the bar very high.  But I like they are attempting something different.

Overall, I would say there are a few skippable tracks here but on the whole, this is an album which rocks so badly and has plenty of tracks which will fit quite easily into their live show.  Which is saying something considering many of the absolute belters on their first two albums.

The Coral - Coral Island

 

Indie rockers The Coral formed in 1996, releasing their self-titled debut album in 2002 and are probably still best known for “Dreaming of you” which appeared on that album.  That is where I discovered them but after the first few albums, I must admit I did lose track of them.  But they didn’t stop and became an established British band in their own right and winning support slots with Oasis, Blur, Artic Monkeys and more recently in 2018 the Manic Street Preachers. And on the tour with MSP is where I re-discovered them and quite frankly, they really impressed me.  They released “Moving through the Dawn” later that year which I thought was the best thing they ever done.

Moving forwards now when The Coral announced they were releasing a double album and I was highly sceptical.  Mainly because double albums are very difficult to pull off. You need to have a lot of good material and be able to keep the listener engaged for a long time.  While The Coral’s last album was good. “Coral Island” is their 10^th album so how can a band still be in that zone for writing so much and keep the standard as high as their last album.  Look at Coldplay whose last album was “Everyday life”, a double album which contained some of their best material ever but also contained some of their worst.  There is a reason why bands often do double albums once in their career and probably on the most part never.

As the singles started to drop like “Lover undiscovered” I was impressed and clicked that pre-order button. Could The Coral pull it off? Well, I am telling you now, they did pull it off and looking at the album I don’t think they had a choice but to release it as a double album.  The whole concept of “Coral Island” is fascinating. There is even a book to accompany the album.  The album is 24 tracks and comes to 54 minutes altogether. Now if The Coral were to release one CD it would probably come to 25 minutes. If they did this it doesn’t matter what the quality people would complain it is too short.

So how come it’s 24 tracks and only 54 minutes. Well 9 of the tracks are about 1 minute long and while some do have instrumental bits in the background, the purpose of these tracks is for narrator to tell the story of Coral Island.  He is one of the brother’s grandfathers who is 85-year-old Ian Murray.  Who has the voice of a complete legend and adds so much to the album and the story.  This mean the actual album is in effect 15 tracks long. Spread over the two CDs – Disc 1 “Welcome to Coral Island” and Disc 2 “The Ghost of Coral island”.  The songs are as if you are travelling from one season to the next with the warm upbeat melodies on the first CD, with the colder more haunting sounds of the second CD.

On the first CD “Welcome to Coral album” my favourite tracks are “Lover Undiscovered” and “Vacancy” but there are so many warm uplifting tracks like this, and you do think The Coral are really well and truly in their element with these kinds of tracks. My two favourite tracks on “The Ghost of Coral Island” are “Take me back to the summertime” and “Calico Girl”. Both features piano and I must say its so nice to hear the piano played in an upbeat tempo. So many bands these days use the piano for sadder slower songs, but these songs are so fun and uplifting.  “Land of the Lost” is one of the more haunting tracks on the second CD and has such a great guitar solo in the outro.

Overall, this is a fantastic album and their so much to discover here. It’s a bold move to do a double album, especially one so different with all the narration but it does work so well and since the narration tracks only last a minute at intervals throughout the album it is broken up well. The quality of the music is on par with the best they have ever done. While they released a singles collection already, if they were doing it again it would be tough just to pick which singles off this album to choose such is the standard set throughout this whole album.