Quick N' Dirty Reviews

Fields/ Everything Last Winter
Rising from the fetid morass that is the current British music scene is Fields’ debut full-length, Everything Last Winter. Most of the acts coming out of the UK these days that are championed by NME and the like suffer from an affliction that I call soundus sameusis – they all sound exactly the same. You know what you’re getting before you even peel off the shrinkwrap or finish the download – whichever you prefer. Luckily, Fields is the exception to this ever-aggravating rule. Maybe it’s because they’re not full-blooded, bad-toothed British – female co-vocalist/keyboardist Porunn Antonia is Icelandic – but whatever the reason, Everything Last Winter is the type of record that’s so eclectic that you’re bound to have a different favorite song each time you listen to it. It’s an amazingly fascinating mixture of indie rock, Britpop, and shoegaze – often within the space of the same song – that’s backed by the truly anthemic guitarwork of lead axeman Jamie Putnam. In addition, the vocal interplay between Antonia and co-vocalist Nick Peill works to perfection. Nowhere is this more evident than on “You Brought This On Yourself,” which combines all of the above elements to form one of the year’s most dazzling tracks. “Song For The Fields,” “Feathers,” and especially “The Death” epitomize Fields’ shoegaze influence, while “Charming The Flames” represents for straight indie rock with its guitars building to a lather that explodes at the end. Everything Last Winter is like many debut albums in that it experiments with different sounds to see what works but unlike the majority it never strains in doing so. Everything on this record fits. Amusingly, on “You Don’t Need This Song (To Fix Your Broken Heart),” Peill and Antonia appeal, “Sing this song like any other one/ ‘Cause they’re all the same.” The irony is that not only do Fields not sound like any other current band but no song on Everything Last Winter is the same either, which is why you’re looking at one of 2007’s best releases at the halfway point of the year.

Dirty Rating: 93/100

Fields On MySpace Music
Fields' Official Site


Black Rebel Motorcycle Club/ Baby 81
As the indie music landscape has blown up in recent years with more and more acts crossing over further into the mainstream, it’s become trendy to bash bands for altering their sound as the assumption is that they’re trying to make themselves more palatable to the masses. Never mind the fact that some of these acts are evolving into something greater than they were. More than almost any other band on the indie scene, critics love to shit on Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. “They sound too much like The Jesus And Mary Chain…they’re derivative… they’re boring… they’re overhyped… blah… blah… blah.” Ignore that bullshit and just listen to their records, specifically their latest, Baby 81. BRMC entered the music industry on a wall of feedback-drenched guitars in the late ‘90’s and stayed consistent with this sound on their first two releases, but took a left turn by surprisingly retreating into Americana-influenced country-blues on their last release in 2005, Howl. What Baby 81 does more than anything else is fuse these two completely disparate sounds into a very exciting and fresh hybrid genre. Opening with a jackhammer combination of “Took Out A Loan,” “Berlin,” and the politicized “Weapon Of Choice” only serves to demonstrate the raw power of the band before scaling it back a few notches with the piano-driven “Windows.” BRMC continues to deftly move from brawn (“Lien On Your Dreams” and “Need Some Air”) to fragility (“All You Do Is Talk” and “Am I Only”) throughout the rest of the course of Baby 81. Although there are a couple of clunkers along the way (the “You’re a 666 conducer/ How do you do the things you do, sir?” refrain of “666 Conducer” being a sizable one), BRMC has nevertheless recorded their most diverse record yet with perhaps their highest percentage of memorable tracks. They haven’t quite perfected it yet, so show a little patience because it’s loooong past time that the fucking haters give them their due. They’re only getting better and better with each record.

Dirty Rating: 84/100

BRMC On MySpace Music
BRMC's Official Site

Joseph Arthur & The Lonely Astronauts/ Let’s Just Be
Joseph Arthur… you’ve gone horribly, horribly wrong. After the critical acclaim that followed his first few releases back in the late ‘90’s/early ‘00’s, Arthur has gone completely off the deep end with his latest, Let’s Just Be. Every kind of excess that an artist can fall victim to is apparent on this record. Twenty minute exercise in complete wankery (“Lonely Astronaut”)? Check. Inane studio banter in between tracks meant to create an “edgy” feel? Check. The sound of a friggin’ minute-long bong hit to open a track (“Good Life”)? Double check. This record is essentially a druggy mess – no one names a song “Cocaine Shoes” without being hopped up on some manner of goofball. Using his new (and utterly forgettable) backing band, The Lonely Astronauts, Arthur succeeds in nothing more than occasionally sounding like a broke-ass Exile-era Rolling Stones. Most of the time, this record is unlistenable. If you’re a fan of Arthur, you can applaud him for taking risks but you also call him out for laying a colossal turd of an album. It hurts to recognize that the artist who gave the world Redemption’s Son and Come To Where I’m From is seemingly dead and buried, although his ghost does occasionally haunt Let’s Just Be (“Spaceman,” “Take Me Home,” “Lack A Vision”). Ultimately, however, it’s not enough to save this record from its creator and its status as a complete and utter failure. Listen up, kids – drugs are often bad for you and shouldn’t be consumed in massive doses while recording an album. Let’s Just Be proves this beyond all reasonable doubt.

Dirty Rating: 18/100

Joseph Arthur On MySpace Music
Joseph Arthur's Official Site