Live Review: Interpol @ Brixton Academy, 7th December.

It's a mean feat selling out Brixton Academy three nights in a row, especially in a period of bitterly cold weather and most money going towards Christmas festivities, but Interpol are still one of the biggest bands on the alternative scene, and with a wait of 3 years for a new album since Our Love To Admire in 2007, plenty of fans were definitely keen to see the New York band again.

It must've been on the lips of many fans whether the band would miss their former bassist Carlos Dengler, who left in order to pursue his own musical interests, and with his intricate bass riffs and general musical dexterity, it may have been hard for Paul Banks, Danny Kessler and Sam Fogarino to find a suitable replacement who could replicate such brilliance. Dave Pajo was drafted in to take Dengler's place on the live dates and was generally appreciated, with Brandon Curtis also brought in on keyboards and vocals.

Not too much difference between the set-lists on each of the three nights, but the audience for the 2nd date were lavished with Turn on The Bright Lights brilliance, the band's first album and was hailed as one of the best debut albums of all-time and defined the band's sound for years to come, even being touted as one of the best albums of the decade. Leif Erikson, Say Hello to the Angels The New, NYC, Obstacle 1 all featured before slamming into a 4-song encore which finished fantastically well with Stella Was A Diver and She Was Always Down and PDA.

Of course with a new album released, songs off the self-titled fourth album were played, Barricade certainly went down a storm with the crowd, Lights being played straight after NYC was a stroke of genius and Safe Without with its melodic chorus were all received well.

The latest album doesn't really match their previous 3 albums by any stretch of the imagination, it still has some great tracks on it, however it will be interesting to see in the coming years whether Banks and co. can find another brilliant bassist and come back with a bang with a fifth album that blows everyone away, but for now, they're doing quite nicely.

8/10

The best albums of 2010.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

The album that's been touted as Arcade Fire's "OK Computer" by certain publications delivers from start to finish and provides distinctly diverse sounds from track to track. Rather than provide the odd anthemic song, Win Butler and co. provide so many different sounds on their third album; from the musically dexterous such as The Suburbs to more rocky numbers such as Month of May to the poignantly beautiful in Sprawl (Flatland). This album has made Arcade Fire one of the biggest bands and certainly one of the best critically acclaimed artists in 2010.

Foals - Total Life Forever

Moving on from the initial success of their first album, the Oxford band have produced an album which shows maturity in sound and a departure from the young indie vibe of the first album. Mixing fast-paced tracks such as Blue Blood and This Orient with the more sombre, slow-paced After Glow, What Remains and Two Trees, Total Life Forever shows an array of high and low-tempo hits, all to bathe in the beauty of, and as such deservedly being nominated for the Mercury Prize this year. Of course, the album would be nothing without the 7-minute brilliance that is Spanish Sahara, building and building beautifully before anti-climaxing and finally hitting emotionally amazing guitar riffs and lyrics of "Forget the horror here, forget the horror here, leave it all down here, it's future rust and it's future dust..." 

Beach House - Teen Dream

A musical masterpiece from the Baltimore-based band, a 10-track flowing majestic piece of beauty; Victoria Legrand's voice is so smooth and melts the heart upon listening. The album is utterly faultless and from start to finish, the beauty in each song is clear to hear and a joy to listen to. Just on the basis of the sheer enchantment and artistry of Teen Dream, it is easily one of the best albums of 2010.

Delphic - Acolyte

After each and every listen of the debut album from Delphic, you can always find something new in it which blows your mind away; something which can be very difficult for a band with more electronic-based sounds to do. The Mancunian band have provided an album that while using such electronic sounds, has produced songs with belting choruses, surging guitar riffs and brilliant pieces of music. From Clarion Call to Remain, every song grabs you straight away and makes you want more. 

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The American rapper continues to push the boundaries of music and with a controversial album cover and an A-List cast including the likes of Jay-Z, Bon Iver and John Legend, West produces a stellar album that matches his loud personality. Actions certainly speak louder than words, and with a wide variety of genres and artists featured in the album, he certainly backs up his outspoken life. Mixing hip-hop tracks such as Power and All of the Lights with superb harmonies and beautiful piano pieces while keeping with his persona with brilliantly bizarre and self-centered lyrical genius has made West's album one of the best releases of 2010.

A great year of music for 2010, and with albums from The Strokes, Radiohead, Elbow and many more set to be released next year, 2011 looks set to be even better.

Live Review: Klaxons @ HMV Forum, 16th November.

Anyone who didn't go to the gig may be somewhat bemused and puzzled as to what this picture is, but do not worry, it's Jamie Reynolds sporting a woolly Slipknot-esque hat which all the members of the band were wearing as they came on stage before launching into the first song of the night, Flashover.

The HMV Forum, a small, somewhat cosy gig venue in a secluded part of Kentish Town was filled with the scent of adolescent sweat as Klaxons set out to send the crowd into a frenzy with hits from Mercury-prize winning album Myths of the Near Future and recent album Surfing the Void.

The band, with their astronomical lyrics and space-focused songs play track after track where there's just no stopping, there's no breather for the fans as Klaxons go from hit to high-tempo hit and there's not much of a break in between.

It was always going to be a hard task for Reynolds and co. to better the first album, especially with such sing-along anthems like Golden Skans and It's Not Over Yet but also fast-paced Atlantis to Interzone, Magick and Gravity's Rainbow which will always win the crowd over, but Surfing The Void has attempted to reach the heady heights they've set themselves. Echoes, which they ended with before encore, combines thudding piano notes with a chorus so brilliantly catchy, you can't help but belt your heart out to it.

While the angst-ridden teens love such belting tunes, it would be nice to see a more slower tempo song from Klaxons with more dexterity in tempo and lyrics, although the second album does seemingly comes close to this, the recently released single of the new album, Twin Flames, is fantastically atmospheric and Venusia carries a steady beat with a belting chorus.

It will be even more of a challenge to produce an even better third album, what with the band's love for astronomy and the like, and perhaps even harder to blend this in with something a bit maturer, but with gigs like this, the fans really won't care.

7/10.

Live Review: Foals @ O2 Brixton Academy, 12th November.

Even on a cold, mid-November night and having been given the wrong type of tickets, nothing could ruin a mesmeric night where Yannis & co. were simply sublime.


The incompetence of the ticketing service Crowdsurge who Foals use on their official site as their ticket provider, who say are a "new and independent ticketing company dedicated to bringing you cheaper service charges, the best customer experience possible and innovations in ticketing." Well, in terms of customer experience, I think those like myself who bought standing tickets in the pre-sale will be greatly dissatisfied. With only a week or so to go until the gig, a great number of those who bought standing tickets in the pre-sale received an e-mail from Crowdsurge saying they had made an "unfortunate error" and had sent us seating tickets instead. Despite my best efforts, they couldn't do anything about it, and offered to refund the booking fee for the tickets and send signed Foals T-shirts as compensation (which at the time of writing, haven't arrived yet), which is less than satisfactory.


However, this really couldn't dampen what was a fantastic gig. Firstly, one of the support bands were absolutely fantastic and anyone who was there probably really enjoyed their set and would advise you to listen to them. Their name was Crystal Fighters, who had a Gogol Bordello set-up but very much had a samba-dance sound and certainly had some catchy tunes such as Xtatic Truth and Champion Sound, and they even played a dubstep song called Swallow, which I personally quite enjoyed.


As for Foals, the band have the ability to play a set which not only combines songs that will get the crowd jumping, but also have several songs which you can simply bathe in their beauty, Spanish Sahara even combines the two, a song that was simply amazing when played.


They started off the set with recently released single Blue Blood which really got the gig off to a flier which such funky guitar riffs. Songs such as Balloons, Cassius, Red Socks Pugie and Olympic Airways were played off the album Antidotes, while Miami, Total Life Forever and the atmospheric and climatic Spanish Sahara off the latest album, Total Life Forever, creating a brilliant atmosphere within the venue and all were massive crowd favourites.


Highlights included Yannis jumping into the crowd during Electric Bloom and personal favourites What Remains, After Glow and 2 Trees all being played, songs that contain such sheer beauty you had to bask in and just admire. 


The gig really climaxed during the encore, coming back on stage to play the French Open and Hummer, a song they hadn't played in a while before their recent tour for the new album. They finished with a bang, and what a bang, with Two Steps, Twice, gradually building and building the tempo before sending their adoring faithful into a wild frenzy, what a way to finish.


Considering my friend & I were in seating and not in the frenetic standing area may have worsened our experience of the gig, but in fact, it's definitely up there in the top 5 gigs I've ever been to, and I was simply lost for words at how they good they were on our journey home. After that, I'll definitely be looking to get a standing ticket for their New Years Eve gig at the HMV Forum, and you should too.

Chapel Club - Echoes of the Bunnymen and bands of old.

Chapel Club, a great new band from London, are making great waves on the alternative music scene. When checking them out on YouTube, they've been compared to a great number of bands; Echo & The Bunnymen, The Smiths, The Cure, Joy Division, the list goes on and on, however Chapel Club are in a field of their own.

Lewis Bowman, the lead singer of the band, does follow in the footsteps of the above bands and their lead singers with a distinctively deep-toned voice, but pulls it off in such a relaxed manner, it's effortless.

One of the their songs, The Shore (which is free to download off their website) provides a breathtakingly hypnotic 6-minute masterpiece , building and building before hitting a brilliantly delicious guitar riff. O Maybe I produces something similar to the vocals of Morrissey, talking of the conflicts of life, complete with pulsating guitar riffs, while Surfacing, with the constantly thunderous sound of the drums, provides an eerie feel before delivering a belting chorus. Recently released single All the Eastern Girls shows the bands diversity, able to move away from perhaps more darker, mysterious works to a song with a more lively sound and a catchy chorus to boot.



However, there is more to this band that meets the eye, a freshness that perhaps has not been seen in the music industry recently. Bowman's lyrical inspirations stem from the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Ted Hughes, while the songs aim to look at questions of religion and faith rather than the musical stereotypes of love & sex that are used far too frequently.

Their album, yet to be titled, is set to be released in January, and something which a lot of people will look forward too. This album could potentially make heads turn, what with some of their songs about that look set to make the tracklisting for the album, and could give faith to the shoegazing generation of old, complementing the rise of bands such as Editors and White Lies.

Check them out, buy their songs, listen to the album in January, and if you can, get tickets to the live shows in 2011, they are not to be missed...