Antiquarian book dealer, illustrator, singer, taxidermist.
READ MOREYour worst fears about ‘Nothing’ are probably right. The late-year, post-album extended-play sounds like the runoff of a few constructions that didn’t make the cut for ‘Dedication’.
It’s hard to fathom that British Sea Power now have five albums under their belts.
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The Dutchess & The Duke
Sunset/Sunrise
[Hardly Art]7/10
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Using the movement of the sun as a metaphor for life and death most certainly isn’t a novel approach, but Seattle duo The Dutchess & The Duke have decided that it is the one that works best for telling their slightly whimsical, melancholic stories. Having moved on from the upbeat country-folk of their first album, Jesse Lortz and Kimberley Morrison are now looking at the bigger picture, both lyrically and musically, and it works, despite the odd moment of derivative 60′s pastiche. The lovely, slender paced ‘Hands’ adds a subtle organ line, while ‘Never Had A Chance’ is Slow Club with a wistful, whiskey-fuelled kick. The piano-led closer ‘The River’ looks back at times gone by and picks up on the life/death theme one last time, and too their credit, The Dutchess & The Duke largely manage to steer clear of sounding melodramatic or pompous.
Your worst fears about ‘Nothing’ are probably right. The late-year, post-album extended-play sounds like the runoff of a few constructions that didn’t make the cut for ‘Dedication’.
Milagres are a Brooklyn-based quintet fronted by a certain Kyle Wilson, whose soaring vocal style sits somewhere between Thom Yorke and Chris Keating of Yeasayer.
On first encounter, ‘Bad Dream Hotline’ is your standard emo-goth release – black on black cover art, tracks called things like ‘A Handsome Stranger Called Death’ and ‘Dance & Weep’.
‘Out of Sight, Out of Town’ is an album that concerns itself, in the main, with casual sex.
When LA Vampires first released ‘So Unreal’ on a limited vinyl run in 2010 it sold out in a flash, perhaps because of its superbly kitsch artwork by Spencer Longo.
Dan Mangan is a husky-voiced, melancholic Canadian singer-songwriter who does all the things you expect husky-voiced, melancholic Canadian singer-songwriters to do.
Favourite Sons is the most recent project of Ken Griffin, formerly of nineties outfits Rollerskate Skinny and Kid Silver.
Synth enthusiasts must have been veritably jumping with joy of late (would a synth enthusiast do that sort of thing?).
A long lasting member of the American garage rock scene since the late Eighties, Mark Sultan has cooked up a hotpot of a new album.
Some very big noises are being made in the mainstream press over this Swedish duo, and their calculated pop sensibilities go a long way to explaining that.
This week we’ve been listening to new music from The Proper Ornaments, The Weeknd, Electricity In Our Homes, Sunless ’97 and Ceremony [pictured].
LISTEN HEREDropping his iPhone was the best thing that ever happened to Reef Younis.
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