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Album Review
DEAR READER – IDEALISTIC ANIMALS
Dear Reader
Idealistic Animals
[City Slang]
7/10


In ‘Idealistic Animal’, Dear Reader – aka 28 year old Cheri MacNeil – has created a break-up record in an untraditional sense, that, rather then being a heart strung album of woe over the breakdown of a relationship with a person, is about a breakdown in religious belief.

Her loss of faith isn’t the only change to occur, either – MacNeil also separated from musical partner Darryl Torr for her sophomore album and she relocated from South Africa to Berlin. Regardless, these changes haven’t enticed her to rebel and seek a new artistic direction at all; they’ve steeled her to cleverly construct an album of folk-tinged art-pop that positively vibrates with character.

Some songs, such as the grandiose ‘Man (Idealistic Animals)’, will attract loose comparisons to flame-haired songstress Florence & The Machine, but on the whole Dear Reader spends her time residing in a different musical landscape far closer to the classy idiosyncratic pop of Feist, St Vincent and, on ‘Camel (Not Black or White but Camel), the lush melodies of Beach House. It mean ‘Idealistic Animal’ stands as a charmingly grown up record with a playful personality that’s worth checking out.

By Nathan Westley

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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.