Alphabeat Gig Review

On Sunday night, I went to the Alphabeat gig to review them for the student newspaper. This should also feature on their website but I can't find it right now, so here it is:

Following the release of their second album, The Beat Is... in March, Danish six-piece Alphabeat are taking their now dancier set on tour throughout the UK, including a night at Oxford’s O2 Academy, supported by Pearl & the Puppets and Eliza Doolittle.
First up, receiving a warm welcome, Pearl and her puppets are best classed as ‘easy-listening’, with potential talent lurking underneath songs with more ‘ahs’ and ‘doos’ than lyrics. The ukulele was a nice touch.
To my mind, Eliza Doolittle stole the show. Her charming smile, crystal clear vocals and down-to-earth lyrics, reminiscent of Kate Nash, were combined with a stage presence that befits her performance-arts background. Her cheery pop shows influence of old rhythm ‘n’ blues and even the lilt of reggae. Current single ‘Skinny Genes’ went down particularly well.
After this outstanding warm up, Alphabeat took to the stage, and met with an audience who were raring to go. Although two-thirds of the band looked as if they had entered the stage straight from the labs, I have never seen a band that so openly enjoys the music they produce. Every one of them smiled and danced from beginning to end. The two singers, Stine Bramsen and Anders SG, work well together, she all flicky hand gestures and twinkle-eyes, he so over-enthusiastic and off with the fairies it occasionally left the realm of the entertaining and entered that of the mildly disturbing.
Despite the unfortunate tendency of many of the songs to sound like the one before, the singles stood out. With many singalongs, the band and audience enjoyed the music together, and this became an infectious pop set. Recent single Hole In My Heart could have come straight off a dancefloor. One thing I did come away convinced of, is that Liam Gallagher never did the tambourine full justice.

Having since downloaded some Eliza Doolittle tracks, I can recommend Moneybox, Rollerblades and Go Home, on top of Skinny Genes, which everyone knows. They're very summery tunes :)

27/04/10

So, just went to my first student newspaper music section meeting. They take place in a pub, nice choice. Anyway, they accumulate promo discs at an alarming rate, so I took a fair few home avec moi. Some of them I've heard of, others were more 'I like the band name' or 'The cover art's pretty' scenarios. Let's have a listen, shall we??

#1 Keane - Stop For A Minute
As a Keane devotee, this one had to be first into the CD player. And, naturally, this isn't my first hearing of this track. Despite Tim Rice Oxley's use of an Eminem rhythm on Nothing In My Way back in 2006, this is the band's first real venture into the realm of hiphop. Unfortunately, although this is breaking ground for Keane, as a hiphop track it's nothing new. And the experimentation seems to have come with a sacrifice of their normally beautiful lyrics. The line 'without you I'm a liner stranded in an ice flow' hardly hits you with the impression that Tim has looked into your heart and perfectly articulated what he found there. Nevertheless, it's a radio-friendly, reasonably catchy track, and I look forward to hearing it live in June.

#2 Professor Green - I Need You Tonight
This was a case of me liking the name, and particularly the font. They're signed to Virgin Records, according to the back. A record deal makes this seem vaguely promising... *presses play* Oh.my.god. what have they done? This is a remix of INXS, and it's not the worst remix I've ever heard, but when a classic is tampered with it needs to be incredible to merit it, in my opinion. This isn't. It has a very basic new chorus, essentially comprising of 'I need you' repeated multiple times, mixed in with the original sample and rap. If the sample weren't so catchy, this song would be completely unmemorable.

#3 Tiffany Page - Walk Away Slow
Right, I have heard of this girl, but only having read about her in 'New to Q' (love that magazine!), so here we go... The closest artist I can think of to compare her to is Sheryl Crow. Her voice and style are quite similar. It's a nice song, her voice radiates an air of cool, and it's surprisingly mature for someone so young.

#4 The Features - The Temporary Blues (Remix)
I was attracted to this one by the Monty Python-esque cover art and the endorsement by Kings of Leon... Well, I can understand the Kings of Leon bit. This is very similar to them, although the voice is slightly less appealing. Some inventive lyrics, and actually a reasonably good rock song. Choral chorus is unusual, but works :)

#5 Gorillaz - Superfast Jellyfish
All I've heard of this new 'superduper' album by the Gorillaz so far is Stylo, and although the bassline on that was fantastic I didn't get into it all that much, so this'll be interesting... This one features De La Soul and Gruff Rhys. It starts off with an advert in a Spongebob Squarepants-like voice. The whole thing seems to revolve around the central concept of breakfast cereal. Odd... some curious sound effects going on, but the verses are generic rap to my ears, not my bag.

#6 Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life
(hope I got those two names the right way round!) Right, this is an album, so I'll review it on the first track. Maybe not an entirely fair method, but easy O:) Sounds like generic indie rock right now. Not bad stuff, but nothing special as of yet. *skips to next track* This is nicer. The singer has a good voice when he's not striving to sound like a rock star.

ooh, I just remembered there's an Eliza Doolittle promo in here, but she features in my Alphabeat gig review from Sunday (which I'll post once it's been printed in the paper), so I'll leave her out for now. Take it from me though, she's faaaaabulous!

#7 Batusis
If this isn't an instrumental, they're taking a hell of a long time to start singing though. Nice rock track though, bit of electric guitar, simple bassline. Nothing special, as it sounds like half a song. *skips to next track* aahhhh vocals. Better. Sounds like it's come straight out of the late 70s/early 80s, no development. They sound exactly like something I've heard before, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

#8 Ellie Goulding - Guns And Horses
The girl the world is talking about right now, although they also say she interviews terribly. Let's see if she's worth the hype. Her voice is huskier than I expected. This seems like a nice pop song, I don't like the trilly effects she's using on the vocals at times though. The lyrics leave a lot to be desired, unfortunately.