The Automatic
Recover
B-Unique Records
Released 18/9/06
Admittedly the pressure on modern bands, or more precisely the record companies behind them, is immense. The Automatic have been widely tipped/massively hyped but the whisperings of the curse of the One Hit Wonder has clearly been keeping the record company big wigs up at night. Safe in the knowledge that their fanbase consists mainly of teenagers they grabbed at a perfectly good song and sent their poor producer into the studio with the instruction ‘twiddle every knob you can reach’. The album version ‘Recover’ is still in there, but now there’s a Euro-Pop ‘beat’ slung lazily over it. Still, I wouldn’t forget about these chaps just yet.
3.5/5
Papa Roach
…To Be Loved
Geffen Records
Released 18/9/06
Cast aside your ‘proper’ music tendencies, ignore the pull of outside opinion and, for the next three minutes at least, bin your Thom Yorke album. No matter who you are, what you’re into or how trendy it’s become to stamp on this band, should you happen to be in a drunken, sweaty disco, we defy you not to dance and shout to this track. It’s one big adrenaline rush of a rock-not-nu-metal-thanks request to just be loved and designed to be cranked to the highest. And no doubt we can all identify with that at some time or another.
4/5
The Black Neon
Ralph & Barbara
Memphis Industries
Released 18/9/06
As upbeat and bouncing as this psychedelic little ditty may sound, Mr Black Neon is singing about running off with another man’s lady. Now this kind of behaviour should not be encouraged regardless of the melodically satisfying package it may come in. Steve Webster, formally of Fort Lauderdale, lets his alter-ego run free with German scenery and idealist imagery. Idealist, at least, in the sense of the exhilaration of trotting off with another man’s loved one to the exotic climes of Mexico. But we aren’t here to judge. Besides, he’s only thinking about it.
3/5
Doloroso
Godless
Trial and Error Recordings
Released 18/9/06
Well they have a godawful name and aren’t anything like as ‘different’ as they think they are but Doloroso are still a reasonably nifty band who are write some lyrically strong songs. And it’s pretty damn hard to do anything different these days, anyway. Frequently described as ‘cinematic’ and likened to David Lynch and other dreamlike creators of cultural entities, these chaps do sound like they recorded their stuff during those dying minutes of consciousness at 3am before drifting off into a world of floating preachers and meandering LSD trips. Back down on earth, it won’t blow your grandma’s socks off or any of that indie nonsense but it’s worth lending a lughole to.
4/5
Scott Matthews
Elusive
Island Records
Released 18/9/06
Courtesy of James Blunt, Jack Johnson and Paulo Nuntini high-pitched singer-songwriters have been branded ‘bad news’. They’ve been discarded as introverted self-satisfying cry-babies to the point where to describe oneself as a singer-songwriter will result in the kiss of credible career death. Each one may insist until they’ve facially turned a shade of the sky that they’re the new Nick Drake; usually they’re not. But we would like to offer up Scott Matthews as a possibility for consideration. He’s about as Jeff Buckley/Elliot Smith/Rufus Wainwright as they come but has managed to be more than just a weak imitation. And for that he should be commended. ‘Elusive’ is a beautiful track.
4/5
The Bronx
The Bronx
Witchita
Released 11/9/06
For all the hardcore punk kids out there this album may well be considered a fall from grace. The often unpopular decision to allow a tad more melody into their music can be considered selling out. Or they may just be maturing; it’s up to the fans to decide whether to abandon their favourite LA boys. Clearly The Bronx consider themselves rather well given their disregard of the need to give their latest album a title; instead settling for a simple self-title for a second time.
Screaming until your lungs start to look like the testicles of a rabid dog is all well and good but continue to do that for the entirety of your career and you run the risk of getting stuck in the same rut you were in ten years ago. Decide to mature or develop your sound and risk alienating your core fans and being called ‘lame’ and other such dynamic insults. Of course there’s always option C which is do like Henry Rollins and use your wit and intelligence to write books and have people come to shows just to hear you speak. But few can wish for that kind of progression and that includes the heavily Black Flag-influenced boys from The Bronx.
Well, diluted or not Matt Caughthran still has plenty enough time to scream such irate musings as “Motherfucker…I want your BLOOD!” and “Breaking through your window, stabbing through your ribcage!” in ‘History’s Stranglers’ so who can say he’s not still a bit angry? Though that particular track is easily the most vitriolic on the album. Swear words are kept to a minimum for most songs and tend to be more introspective than outward rage. Though whether he’s singing about breaking the mould or the coke-addicted LA tarts Caughthran’s trademark sandpapery voice is always there.
The slower, more sensitive lonely-driven ‘Dirty Leaves’ nestles between the more energetic ‘Oceans of Glass’ and ‘Transsexual Blackout’. One can quite imagine a crestfallen punk singing his little heart out to this. Yet the lyrics let it down. Bouncing from inadvertantly funny with lines such as “Before I fell apart, like a drug infected heart” to the just plain lazy “I replaced your tears, your loneliness, with cigarettes and wine, but you needed more, and we ran outta time.” It’s entirely possible that these chaps are connoisseurs who care not for the archetypal punk beverages of beer and JD. Or it could just be because wine rhymes with time.
If the idea of putting a reasonable amount of tune to some of your songs is like a betrayal of the gods of punk then you may well turn your nose sneeringly up at The Bronx’s latest release. But, despite the often woefully shallow lyrics, The Bronx still know how to bang out a good tune.
3.5/5
