Reviews

Review: Starflower – Ceasefires

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Starflower: Ceasefires (KHY Suomen Musiikki, 2010)

Starflower has matured since the release of the debut album. Less cute and more beautiful. Less indiepop and more ambitious ballads. They are certainly standing closer to the edge of my comfort zone, but thanks to the quality of the songs, they don’t step out of bounds and Antti Ojala’s sweet and sentimental voice is still capable of carrying the songs to my heart. However, Starflower’s second album Ceasefires has one obvious flaw. There’s not much point in complaining about it, but the fact still is, that the album is way too long. At least I have major difficulties to stay interested through the whole thing even though I do really like the majority of the song material.  This means that there’s a minor danger that such great songs like Light as a Friend and Run For Your Life just gets buried in the crowd. Ceasefires is still a fine album and quite a logical step forward. It doesn’t drive away the indie pop folks and hopefully brings new fans to the table.

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Starflower Website
Starflower at myspace

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Reviews

Review: The Weakerthans – Live at The Burton Cummings Theatre

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The Weakerthans:  Live at The Burton Cummings Theatre CD+DVD (Epitaph, 2010)

I don’t care much for live albums and hardly ever buy them. This time I had to make an exception, because The Weakerthans is one of the greatest bands on the planet. Live at The Burton Cummings Theatre captures The Weakerthans in stunning form. The whole thing looks and sounds absolutely perfect. Heck, it sounds so good that you might not even realise that you are listening to a live recording if it’s just playing on the background. The concert was recorded last april in Winnipeg and the set list has songs from all of their albums albeit the focus is obviously on the last two albums. I won’t go into more detail, because a) I’m lazy b)  if you don’t know them, you probably won’t start by purchasing a live album c) if you do know them, you know how fantastic they are. So the only reason for this review was to notify that such a release is out and available.  It almost flew under my radar..

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ4SvAe6r7Y]

The Weakerthans Website
The Weakerthans at myspace

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Reviews

Review: Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can

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Laura Marling: I Speak Because I Can (Virgin Records, 2010)

I loved Laura Marling’s debut album Alas I Cannot Swim, but unfortunately she has gotten better since those days. This is obviously an idiotic statement, but in a way I feel like her new album I Speak Because I Can is too good and too professional. It just doesn’t have as much room to breathe or room for error as the debut and therefore it has a danger of becoming  a little boring in the long run. Oh well, it could be that I’m just a  sad chauvinist prick who would have preferred if she had stayed as the cute girl playing New Romantic over and over again. I’d like to think that I’m not such a sad case and the reason for me not to completely fall in love with Laura’s new album is just the fact that I prefer simple things and down-to-earth production.  She is still a great singer and a wonderful songwriter. Therefore I’m pretty sure that if they had released the demo tapes of the album instead of this polished and finished product, I probably would have liked it a lot more. In overall, Laura Marling is a wonderful and extremely talented folk artist capable of writing beautiful, thoughtful and inspiring songs and yours truly is a lousy and extremely foolish sad excuse of a reviewer capable of writing lame, pointless and uninspiring reviews. Which one do you believe? I think Laura will get my vote.

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Laura Marling Website
Laura Marling at myspace

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