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Album Review
Bright Eyse and Neva Divona
Bright Eyes & Neva Dinova
One Jug Of Wine, Two Vessels
[Saddle Creak]
6/10


Collaborating with Conor Oberst must be both the Holy Grail for any alt. country artist and a poisoned chalice – the poignancy of Bright Eyes’ semi-cracking vocals and waltzing melodies shining a light on your very existence one second and showing up your meagre input the next. Jake Bellows of Neva Dinova and Oberst have been like-minded pals forever, which is how long this EP-come-LP has been in fruition (4 new Bright Eyes songs have bumped this re-release up to 10 tracks), and while it’s unfair to call the Bellows-fronted tracks mediocre or weightless there’s little escaping that it’s the sheep’s bleat of Oberst on tracks like the typically sympathy-seeking ‘Black Comedy’ and the anthemically regretful ‘Happy Accident’ that gives this record its frequent highlights.

By Stuart Stubbs


TANLINES – MIXED EMOTIONS
Mixed Emotions
[Matador]
7/10

Not everyone has the option to release a grab-bag aggregation of offcuts, deleted singles and remixes before their first full-length debut.

BRETON – OTHER PEOPLE’S PROBLEMS
Other People's Problems
[Fat Cat]
9/10

More of a collective than a band, Breton emerged from a group of filmmakers, which goes some way to explain the erratic disposition of their music.

BLOOD RED SHOES – IN TIME TO VOICES
In Time To Voices
[V2]
8/10

In life, we are often held back by limitations that are either of our own making or unjustly placed upon us.

GRINDERMAN – GRINDERMAN 2 RMX
Grinderman 2 RMX
[Mute]
8/10

Nick Cave isn’t a man who need repeat himself very often so when he asks for the stars to come out to play.

SEA OF BEES – ORANGEFARBEN
Orangefarben
[Heavenly]
7/10

This marks something of a break up record for Julie Ann Baenziger. After the rather lovely debut, ‘Songs for the Ravens’, ‘Orangefarben’ feels like a second, prolonged diary entry.

SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO – UNPATTERNS
Unpatterns
[Wichita]
6/10

The speed with which dance music currently mutates means that even relatively new acts like Simian Mobile Disco – their debut is less than five years old – feel like establishment figures.

BLACK DICE – MR IMPOSSIBLE
Mr Impossible
[Ribbon Music]
1/10

Black Dice began their career as anarchic thrash noiseniks fifteen years ago, performing abrupt, aggressive music designed to piss people off.

CLOCK OPERA – WAYS TO FORGET
Ways To Forget
[Moshi Moshi]
3/10

The vocals on a record can draw a listener in, or repel them. It’s also utterly unpredictable how the sound of a person’s singing voice will affect you.

GEMMA RAY – ISLAND FIRE
Island Fire
[Bronze Rat]
5/10

The idea of a tortured artist can be an attractive one, but sometimes artists suffer from too much; too many influences, too many layers and too many ideas.

DIRTY THREE – TOWARD THE LOW SUN
Toward The Low Sun
[Bella Union]
8/10

Dirty Three return for their first album in seven years, and a most welcome return it is. Few people have the command over their instruments and self-honed sound quite like Dirty Three do.