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Monday 10 November 2008, 11:29 | By CMU Editorial
Album Review: The Boat People – Chandaliers (Ivy League Music/Mushroom Music)
Album Reviews
As a general sceptic on life, I can’t help but scan press releases with the scrutiny of a neighbourhood watch committee on fireworks night. So when I read that The Boat People have shared a stage with some of the most exciting bands around (Midlake, Idlewild, Deerhunter), and their claim to be the successors of melodic Australians Crowded House, my eyebrow was raised. And I have to say, based on ‘Chandaliers’, The Boat People are a band whose influences hang fearlessly on the precipice of plagiarism. Beginning with ‘The Awkward Orchid Orchard’, they sound like The Shins playing a smoke-filled jazz bar. ‘Born In The 80s’ transports the fretwork of Los Campesinos! through a kaleidoscope of infectious pop sensibility. And in the dulcet harmonies of ‘Tell Someone Who Cares’, the proud Crowded House heritage shines through in all its nonchalant beauty. Yet though these influences are as apparent as the melodies, The Boat People have an infectious quality that quashes the sceptic inside. The bizarre aspect of this album is that despite each song being a discreet packet of influence, the whole album has flavour and character, a consistency that supersedes the individual tracks. As the music builds, you’re enveloped in the world of The Boat People, and a casual stray into the painfully twee is blunted by the album’s honesty. I imagine even as the author of the press release finished scanning the gushing hyperboleof his own creation, he would have taken the words with a fistful of salt. Yet, beneath the exaggeration, there actually is a glimmer that Crowded House’s successors could be round the corner. GB
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READ MORE ABOUT: GB | The Boat People
Monday 10 November 2008, 10:55 | By CMU Editorial
Single Review: Less Than Jake – Abandon Ship (Cooking Vinyl)
Single Reviews
I have never met anyone with three-chord sympathies who despises Less Than Jake. They’re always about, finding themselves on all sorts of festival bills belting out their pop-punk ska harmonies to hundreds of sun-drenched receptive teenagers. Theirs is the music of summer, the music of youth, yet their bodies – if not their sound – have matured 15 years since they first started this malarkey. There are times when saying a band have not really progressed in so long is a bad thing, but with this release LTJ are holding stalwartly onto the sound that keeps them young. Previous albums – pretty much everything since ‘Hello Rockview’ and ‘Borders & Boundaries’ – have seen them losing their edge and kind of going through the motions, but ‘Abandon Ship’ is vintage LTJ. The Peter Pans of punk are back, and no matter how much Wendy complains, the dreadlocks are staying. ME
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READ MORE ABOUT: Less Than Jake | ME
Monday 10 November 2008, 10:35 | By CMU Editorial
Single Review: Lemar – If She Knew (SonyBMG/Epic Records)
Single Reviews
It’s been six years since the general public famously refused to vote Lemar as the winner of Fame Academy. However, in that space of time, he has managed to win those people over with his soul rhythms and sultry vocals to become a recording artist in his own right, and also fight off the ‘reality TV’ stigma. As a comeback single and the first release from his fourth album, ‘The Reason’, ‘If She Knew’ is a dependable and steady R&B track. It’s not going to knock your socks off, but it’s easy to sing along to, makes for a good heartfelt love song, and Lemar’s voice will have the toughest of girls going weak at the knees. A good decent effort from Lemar, but not one to that’s going to replace the likes of ‘If There’s Justice’ or ‘It’s Not That Easy’ as the fan’s favourite Lemar track. SD
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READ MORE ABOUT: Lemar | SD
Monday 10 November 2008, 10:28 | By CMU Editorial
Single Review: Friendly Fires – Paris (Beggars/XL Recordings)
Single Reviews
The art of the re-release is a tricky business, especially when the initial release was as near to perfection as an indie dance record can get. But, like a phoenix from the flames that is the cavernous crater of the music biz, Friendly Fires’ ‘Paris’ gets a re-make and re-release following the success of the band’s top 40 eponymous debut album, and actually sounds bloody great for it. Brooklyn-based indie chicks Au Revoir Simone team up with the lads to provide the born-again track’s backing vocals, and their addition adds a creative and dreamy-like texture to its sound. 2008’s ‘Paris’ is a breathtaking, if not hugely needed, revival, and, like their exhilarating previous release ‘Jump In The Pool’, is chock-full of tinny and excitable percussion that sets it apart from much of the electro-indie already out there. TW
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READ MORE ABOUT: Friendly Fires | TW
Friday 7 November 2008, 11:41 | By CMU Editorial
HMV launches MP3 store
Business News Digital HMV Timeline Retail
Talking of Apple’s MP3 selling competitors, HMV yesterday launched its MP3 store, which carries DRM-free content from EMI, Universal and indie labels.
Like Play.com, who launched their MP3 offer earlier this year (and who now have all four majors on board), HMV are playing with price point in a bid to win a share of the market, offering tracks for 69p rather that the industry standard 79p.
READ MORE ABOUT: HMV
Thursday 6 November 2008, 11:42 | By CMU Editorial
Verdict Research says gaming enabling music retailers to succeed
Business News Retail
New research from London based retailer experts Verdict Research reckons that high street music stores like HMV and Zavvi will be successful in turning round their businesses, though mainly thanks to the continued boom in video game sales. The new Verdict report reckons that video game sales will grow 42% this year to be worth £4.64 billion, while music and DVD sales together will only come to £4.46 billion.
Music Week quote Verdict analyst Malcolm Pinkerton thus: “Though the music and video sector has enjoyed a boost from the rapidly growing digital download market, general trading conditions remain challenging. Music is suffering from piracy, a continual onslaught of price deflation, intensifying competition and the ongoing decline of physical format CDs. While the DVD market has shown robust volume growth, value growth is impaired by falling prices and heavy discounting”.
Entertainment retailers are succeeding by diversifying out of music and DVD, Pinkerton says: “The two specialists [HMV and Zavvi] have made a point of diversifying their offers, cutting back on space in music in particular and re-allocating it to more lucrative areas such as MP3 players, books, clothing and video games”.
The Verdict Research backs up a recent report from the Entertainment Retailer’s Association, formerly the British Association Of Record Dealers, which was optimistic about the near future of entertainment retail but admitted music retailers were only succeeding when they expanding out of music.
READ MORE ABOUT: Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) | HMV | Verdict Research | Zavvi
