Just Once - How To Dress Well (E.P. Review)

How To Dress Well - Just Once
8/10

Introducing:

How To Dress Well. To call this R&B would be falling short of the mark. Tom Krell’s deeply soulful first album was R&B had it been thought up by angels, then remixed by aliens. Combining the minimalist haunted echoes of Burial with the tear-stained emotional beauty of Perfume Genius, ‘Love Remains’ is on first listen, with its falsetto vocals and smooth beats, relaxing, therapeutic and tuneful, yet with repeated listens it becomes heart-wrenching; a sonic ghost of loneliness from a life you never lived.

The E.P.

‘Just Once’ takes its name from a poem by the isolationist, Rainer Rilke; an earnest verse stating the singularity of our own individual existence. Bag’o’laughs this ain’t. The extract that Brooklyn philosophy graduate, Tom Krell, posted on the How To Dress Well blog is poignant. It’s difficult to decipher whether the words are appreciative of the preciousness of life, or resentful of it. It’s a gritty subject to write an E.P. about - three tracks of which are entitled ‘Suicide Dream’ - but How To Dress Well addresses the topic with an uplifting sensitivity in the nature of his music. It’s an orchestral E.P. and the sounds are truly heavenly, with choirs, more strings and more piano replacing the ethereal fuzz of his previous album. The first two tracks of this E.P. feature on Krell’s 2010 album, but there’s no real crossover, all four tracks on ‘Just Once’ justify being on a separate record. What does carry over from ‘Love Remains’ is the beauty, and the soul.

Listening to ‘Just Once’ seemed to really make sense of How To Dress Well’s earlier work for me. Often, it’s easy to listen to lo-fi, fuzzy reverb-drenched productions and think that they’re too lazy or poor to make a proper effort, or, worse, that they’re trying to hide ineptitude. It took listening to this E.P. to make it clear to me that the lo-fi nature of Krell’s first release was not doing anything of the sort. Rather than ineptitude, it was hiding a magnificent voice – think Bon Iver and Perfume Genius – and the kind of tender raw feeling that the very best R&B can provide. Krell’s next record will probably see a return to the style of his first, but, thanks to ‘Just Once’, I look forward to listening to it with a finely tuned understanding of what he is capable of.

Sounds like:

Bon Iver, Perfume Genius, James Blake

'Just Once' is available now on How To Dress Well's bandcamp profile, and his blog is a really insightful read too. He'll be visiting the U.K. for a few live shows in August.

Mother's Ruin - Bordeauxxx (EP Review)

Bordeauxxx - Mother's Ruin
7/10

Introducing: 
Bordeauxxx. Cutesy glockenspiel infused twee guitar music. BLOODY STUDENTS. This is the kind of band to make some nauseous and some weak at the knees, but if you're into uplifting, summery and catchy songs then you should definitely give them a listen.

The E.P.:
I've known about Bordeauxxx for a little bit of time now, but I've only just rediscovered them this week. Actually released in August last year, 'Mother's Ruin' is a definite summer record. On the opening track, jaunty guitars are backed up by glockenspiel, drums, and what in some points sounds like a recorder. Yeah, that instrument you definitely played at some point between the ages of 7 and 10. The vocals are predictably childish and bratty then, but with a driving emotional quality that is curiously akin to Bloc Party. 'Bursts of Static' is punctuated by right-on group shouting, further promoting the band's hyperactive attitude - 'our lives are short and fast' sums up the hedonistic naivity that Bordeauxxx seem to rely on.

They do at times lack a bit of substance and originality, drawing heavily from Los Campesinos!' first album, 'Hold On Now, Youngster', and it becomes quite difficult to imagine this student band as the Skins-esque bunch of rogues and Misfits they make themselves out to be, but then that can be explained away by the irony and nostalgia that comes bundled with anything claiming itself to be 'twee', ever. Bordeauxxx seem like genuinely nice people, and it sounds like they're relishing taking up the helm at the top of a rising twee-pop scene, instigated - and quickly abandoned - by Los Campesinos!. Along with Allo Darlin', and Stagecoach, Bordeauxxx could be the band to make this incredibly catchy and heartwarming strand of twee pop mainstream again.

Sounds like:
Cajun Dance Party, Los Campesinos! (circa 2007), Stagecoach, The Holloways

The above video is Bordeauxxx's newest single, 'Every Holiday Is A Disaster'. In August they'll be playing at Knee Deep festival and LeeFest. 


You can get hold of all of the band's music on their bandcamp profile, which lets you download it for whatever price you like!
http://bordeauxxx.bandcamp.com/

Smother - Wild Beasts (Album Review)

Wild Beasts - Smother
9/10

Introducing: 
Wild Beasts. They're defiantly different, and that'll be obvious as soon as you listen to them. The lead vocals are high-pitched and girly - something that at first can seem off-putting. They're a band that often people don't seem to 'get' on the first listen, but then click after hearing them a few more times, and if you listen with an open mind, then you'll be treated to songs that are at the same time beautiful, mysterious and brilliantly entertaining. 

The Album: 
Originally from the somewhat culturally comatose Cumbrian town of Kendal, Wild Beasts hopped over to Leeds in an effort to increase their exposure. My house lies almost exactly at the centre point between these two Northern settlements, but I’m glad lead singer Hayden Thorpe and crew didn’t stop off here on the way through. After a listen to Smother’s deeply – some would say sensual – perverted lyrics, you might expect a visit from Wild Beasts to result in exposure of another kind entirely.

Obviously, sexual references are rife in music nowadays, so the lyrics shouldn’t be altogether too shocking when pitted against some of the more vile offerings of ‘artists’ like Odd Future. If you think that’s a bit of a strong comparison to make, you only need to listen to Smother’s opening track, Lion’s Share – ‘I wait until you’re woozy, I won’t know until you’re limp, I take you in my mouth like a lion takes his game’ – to see that this is an album with its own share of darkness. The difference is, though, that this is also an album racked with guilt. It reverberates from Thorpe’s, and bassist Tom Flemming's melancholic swooping vocals. The relentless math-rock guitars, electronic percussion and striking piano loops, at times, make for an unsettling, but completely captivating, claustrophobia. The album imprisons you in a world of yearning regret until the group's own demons are vanquished.

If it all sounds a bit heavy, don’t worry, Wild Beasts will have you charmed. Bed Of Nails is a pure slice of 80’s pop. Toe-tappingly twinkling guitar lines provide a background for a catchy chorus. The delights of Wild Beasts is that they can surround such twisted lyrics, and what is admittedly a jarringly marmite voice, with such nuggets of what is essentially pop music.

Smother finishes with what is probably my track of the year so far: a sprawling and, ultimately, majestic ‘Sea Within A Sea’-style swansong that grows inside you, rewarding multiple listens - much like the rest of the album. 

Sounds like: Morrissey, Antony & The Johnsons, Foals

In November, Wild Beasts will be embarking on a UK tour. I should be catching them when they play at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham on the 20th of that month. I suggest you do the same!