The Snow Patrol we meet on A Hundred Million Suns is a band facing the same dilemma that Coldplay met on 2008's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends; having conquered the world with a rousing, melancholy brand of MOR indie, where now? On the surface, A Hundred Million Suns seems to suggest, nowhere especially new: producer Jacknife Lee, who first worked with the band on ...
Say what you like about BBC Radio 1, its DJs or its playlists, they're definitely getting one thing right through their commitment to live music--particularly with regards to the often quirky fruits that tumble forth from its Live Lounge. Volume 3 of the double CD collections from these sessions arrives packed with more than enough in the way of gems to offset the few inevitable ...
Would it be outlandish to suggest that wholesome rugby-shouldered ruddy-faced English piano-pop boys Keane have spent the best part of their two-album career fanning the impression that they exist somewhere between an easy Mothers' Day gift and the album it's ok to give your girlfriend back when you split up, just in order to blow everyone out of the water like 80s neon-pop commandos with the ...
After cockily shrugging off the difficult second album challenge with their hugely successful Yours Truly, Angry Mob, the Kaisers deliver yet another collection of blistering rock-pop in the shape of Off with Their Head. Producer Mark Ronson returns the band to the distilled pop potency of 2005's Employment as well as providing an all-star cast of guests: Lily Allen provides ...
To say there has been a lot of anticipation for Coldplay's fourth album, Viva La Vida, is an understatement. Having enlisted legendary leftfield producer Brian Eno, borrowed their album title from a painting by renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and made tantalising remarks about sonic reinvention, the world has been curious (to say the least) to hear what the `new' Coldplay might sound ...
There are few things in life quite so liberating as the opening track on an Elbow album--they're like airlocks between the plainness of the outside world and the elaborate melancholic heave-ho that you are likely about to submerge yourself in. Following predecessors "Any Day Now", "Ribcage" and "Station Approach", "Starlings" opens their fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid rising from a bed of ...