Existing somewhere in the hinterland between Joanna Newsom’s unabashed indulgence and The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s efficient, furious pop: Strange Mercy is yet more proof that there’s nowhere in life worth going to if you don’t enjoy the trip.
Author Katherine Rodgers
Patrick Wolf – Lupercalia
Have you heard? Patrick Wolf’s in love! Gone is the smudged eyeliner, the peroxide locks and leather bondage gear – The Bachelor is getting hitched! Lupercalia focuses on the heart-swelling, knee-knocking, flustering flushes of love and totally nails it.
Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital
Sound Kapital is a remarkably solid release, managing to lasso the elusive, blissed-out throb of 80s classics without sounding in the least bit gimmicky in the process.
Sufjan Stevens – All Delighted People EP
Sufjan Stevens is still the emotional, down-cast wreck that penned ditties about serial killers, cancer patients and ruined Christmases that he always was. And by God, we love him all the more for it. Especially when he releases material as good as this from nowhere…
Wolf Parade – Expo 86
All in all, Expo 86 is the album Wolf Parade were always meant to make – neither buoyanced by the incredible serendipity that preceded Apologies To The Queen Mary nor the abhorrent lack of focus that flagged At Mount Zoomer, Expo 86 finds Wolf Parade finally settled on a middle ground- and by God, it suits them.
Tegan and Sara – Mandela Hall, Belfast 14/06/10
Despite shocking geographical unawareness (“Do you guys have winter? Does it, like, snow here?”) Tegan and Sara light up the Mandela Hall with the kind of nuclear-powered pop-punk capable of coercing even the sourest of faux-intellectuals into a smile.
Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be
A charmingly flawed album that could very well wrangle it’s way into your heart as your sepia-toned, sun-kissed, flighty summer romance.
Adelaide’s Cape – Last Sleep in Albion
The world Adelaide’s Cape conjures up on Last Sleep In Albion is a far cry from the gauzy flights of fancy so fashionable in the modern folk world.
TLOBF Interview :: Two Door Cinema Club
Bangor may not be renown for producing any kind of bands whose fan base extends outside menopausal housewives (*cough* SNOW PATROL *cough*) but Two Door Cinema Club are here to change all that…
Paperplain – Entering Pale Town
Entering Pale Town’s twee aesthetic is so utterly absorbing, it’s impossible not to allow yourself to drift off into a sepia-tinted, pleasantly snug daydream – something akin to the centrespread of a Cath Kidston catalogue.
Holly Miranda – The Magician’s Private Library
Like Annie Clark on the stunning Actor, The Magician’s Private Library finds Holly Miranda equally as fascinated by the jarring juxtaposition between the gorgeous and the disgusting.
Lissie – Why You Runnin’ EP
The debut release from Lissie is, by no means, a bad release – the songs are pleasantly inoffensive, impeccably performed, and – in theory – highly appealing, but Lissie is a small fish in the insanely crowded, overwhelmingly talented female singer-songwriter pool.
Slow Club – Christmas, Thanks For Nothing
Christmas – a time of love, forgiveness, and the consumption of copious amounts of delicious food – or is it? Judging by the extreme brand of misery peddled on Sheffield duo Slow Club’s Christmas EP, you’d be far more likely to find half-empty tubs of valium and crushed Kleenex strewn under SC’s Christmas tree.
Amy Millan – Masters of the Burial
At first listen, ‘Masters of The Burial’ may come off as bland and uninspired but the devil’s in Millan’s details – scratch the surface and there’s a veritable treasure trove of heartbreak and lost love.
Taxi Taxi! – Still Standing at Your Back Door
More Swedish goodness in the form of a set of twins under the guise of Taxi Taxi! who’ve release a debut of startling maturity.
Alela Diane & Alina Hardin – Alela & Alina EP
Unfairly, perhaps, compared to Joanna Newsom, Alela Diane seems to be getting the attention she deserves at the moment. However, is an EP, consisting mainly of covers, a good idea? Katherine Rodgers finds out.
