Reviews

The Bishops: For Now

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The Bishops: For Now (W2 records, 2009)

The Bishops is a young british group whose self-titled debut was a really great album. Everything looked really promising, but unfortunately the follow-up For Now doesn’t quite live up to the expectations. It just feels a bit indiffirent and it lacks the energy and raw rock’n’roll of the debut. While the debut was an energic blast of 60’s influenced rock’n’roll, this new one takes a giant step towards lame modern indie bands. The biggest problem is definitely the production. Where is all the action, sweat and energy. It just sounds way too clean and almost boring when compared to the debut. The songwriting quality is still pretty good and if this had been recorded at Toe-Rag studios with the same producer as the debut, this could have been almost as good as the debut. Only almost because the debut did have 3 or 4 truly fabulous songs that this one doesn’t have. The rest of the songs on the older album are probably pretty equal when compared to these new songs.  The old ones just sound million times better and are therefore really enjoyable. For Now is not a bad album, but it’s still rather difficult to find a reason why I would spend much time listening to it because there are lots of much more imaginative releases out there. Like their awesome debut album. I’m guessing The Bishops is still a kick-ass live band, but hopefully they again start listening to those 60’s garage bands before entering to the recording studio next time.

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The Bishops Website
The Bishops at myspace

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Reviews

Tinted Windows: S/T

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Tinted Windows: Tinted Windows (S-Curve Records, 2009)

Tinted Windows is the new supergroup where James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins.. but the solo album is obviously the most important thing), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne, Ivy) and Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) teamed up with Taylor Hanson. Some have been far from impressed, but I think they’ve created a great little pop album. Okay, it’s nothing groundbreaking and the lyrics won’t win the annual poetry competition, but it’s catchy and truly enjoyable pop music. Okay, it might be just whole lot of fun packed into simple, energic pop songs about the girls they either have, have lost or are only dreaming about, but exactly when did that become a bad thing. And if you tell me that Taylor Hanson’s Nothing To Me is not a magnificent piece of Big Star influenced pop music, my peaceful heart might lose its patience and show you a bad finger and throw some raspberries towards you. It wasn’t even until I was writing this review tonight when I noticed that Nothing To Me is actually written by Taylor. I wouldn’t have guessed that. I mean here we have a band that contain my two big songwriting heroes  Adam Schlesinger and James Iha and the best song is written by a guy that I couldn’t have cared less about before this project. A good lesson that I should let my ears and heart make the decisions and not be so freakin’ prejudiced beforehand.  Now where is that Taylor fan club.  I really want to join in.

In overall,  I think Tinted Windows is a really good pop record that contains some fabulous pop songs like Nothing To Me, Kind Of A Girl, Messing With My Head and Take Me Back. Surely there are a couple of average tunes that maybe feel like leftovers, but pop albums that don’t contain any mediocre songs are a really rare treat. 

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Tinted Windows Website
Tinted Windows at myspace
 
By the way. Am I the only one or does Taylor’s voice remind you of Super Deluxe’s Braden Blake occasionally. Especially on Doncha Wanna. But what about Take Me Back? He sounds so freakin’ familiar in the chorus, but I can’t get the band and/or vocalist to my head.

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Reviews

Brendan Benson: My Old, Familiar Friend

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Brendan Benson: My Old Familiar Friend (ATO, 2009)

I hope it’s time for Brendan Benson to step into the spotlight. I don’t have anything against The Raconteurs. In fact, I really like them. But while I like The Raconteurs, I absolutely love Brendan Benson as a solo artist. Therefore for me the most important thing about The Raconteurs has been the fact that it just might make the name Brendan Benson better known and people will start to notice what a great songwriter he is. This is  already his fourth album and all of them are near-perfect pop albums (obviously because I’m a typical indie boy, I think the first one is the best, but I do love them all). My Old, Familiar Friend is again a hit record. It should be a hit record. In my dreams this kind of albums are the ones that would top the charts. Even in my dreams I’m not high enough to realistically dream about my beloved small power pop groups suddenly hitting the charts, but albums like this seem to have all the needed ingredients in my fantasy land. It sounds damn good, it’s catchy as hell, it’s radio friendly, it’s beautifully crafted, melodic and simple pop music and Brendan is a pretty boy as well. .There shouldn’t be anything stopping him from getting a worldwide success.. While waiting for the day when I wake up into a world where Metarie ringtones and Alternative To Love t-shirts surround me in the crowds, I can listen to this strong pop album.  The opener A Whole Lot Better is one of the songs of the year and the quality of the music remains almost equally high throughout the record. My Old, Familiar Friend is again a real pop gem.

Brendan Benson at myspace
 
 
(yeah, I do know that this so called “review” didn’t really describe the album, but as you might have noticed in the past and will notice in the future that I’m no real reviewer. Just a little pop fan who after a long break again started to write about the music he loves eventhough he doesn’t generally know much about music. I still don’t know whether I’m going to keep on doing these regularly. I might quit any day, but as long as I enjoy writing them.. why not).

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