Vol. 146
Follow us on Social Media
Categories
Full Pelt Magazine
Tag: Album Review
Categories
Lucia & The Best Boys
‘Picking Petals’
Follow us on Social Media
LUCIA & THE BEST BOYS – PICKING PETALS – ALBUM REVIEW
Lucia & The Best Boys, one of Scottish music’s best kept secrets are back with their sophomore album, ‘Picking Petals’, and it’s another smouldering collection of emotively engaging indie rockers ready to let the secret out.
Once you’ve discovered the band it’s very difficult not to go all in. With an immense talent and songwriting ability, Lucia Fairfull and her band feel like an undeniable force.
Each track captivates with majestic melody and those powerful vocals, you can feel Fairfull’s continued growth across this album.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘Lonely girl’
Obvious comparisons are available – Kate Bush, Fleetwood Mac, Florence + The Machine, HAIM… the list goes on but this isn’t just a love letter to those influences this is a harnessing of those powers into something fresh.
Elegant pop hooks with indie swagger and rock attitude, these songs feel like Lucia & The Best Boys nailing down a signature sound of their own and we are all for it.
Guest spots from Lauren Mayberry (Chvrches) and Abigail Morris (The Last Dinner Party) both play out superbly and by the album finale, ‘Ephemeral’, you’ll feel like your only option is to hit play again!
Share this review on Social Media
Categories
Five Finger Death Punch
‘Legacy’
Follow us on Social Media
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH – LEGACY – ALBUM REVIEW
For all of us the question of legacy will arise at some point. What am I leaving behind? How will my time on this planet be remembered? What did I achieve? For big bands and artists living their lives in the public eye, these questions burn even heavier.
Over two decades, Five Finger Death Punch have done a lot. They’ve become one of the biggest metal bands on this planet we all live on. They have played big shows, huge festival slots, had massive success across their nine albums and have done things 99.9% of bands only wish they could’ve achieved.
The band have also attracted their fair share of naysayers and haters however and have suffered with demons that 99.9% of bands are glad to avoid. As they celebrate their 20th anniversary and release their aptly titled tenth album, ‘Legacy’, many will naturally ponder those original questions in relation to this band.
A band seemingly destined to headline major festivals but one that still has not. A band who has created music cherished by many and despised by just as many. Their legacy may therefore be one of divisiveness.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘EYE OF THE STORM’
Funny then that this new album is clearly going to do the same thing – create mixed feelings. Lovers of the band will herald this as everything that makes the band their favourite. Those that hate the band will equally point to the tired metal tropes that make them so polarising.
There is no originality on this record. If you asked AI to create a new Five Finger Death Punch album, this wouldn’t be far off. Still for a tenth album, and looking back at their career this is probably exactly what their diehard fans will want to hear, so how can you call this anything but a success?
And there lies the essence of the problem. The band have made themselves into something that can never be universally loved. Division is part of their musical identity. The album offers nothing new, but it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is. It’s modern metal at it’s biggest, but it’s modern metal at its most overdone. For every positive, there is a negative.
That’s all a long way of explaining that this is as predicted a true marmite album. Love the band and you’ll love this album. Hate the band and this is more fuel for your fire. Trying to be unbiased we keep coming back to the overarching word – generic. That pretty much sums it up.
Share this review on Social Media
Categories
Full Pelt Magazine
Vol. 145
Follow us on Social Media
Categories
The Strokes
‘Reality Awaits’
Follow us on Social Media
THE STROKES – REALITY AWAITS – ALBUM REVIEW
The Strokes have never been the most prolific band. It shouldn’t be a surprise therefore that despite the relative success of 2020’s ‘The New Abnormal’, it has taken them another six years to release the follow up.
Their seventh album, ‘Reality Awaits’, is finally here however following a slight delay to it’s release. For the album, the band are back with producer Rick Rubin who helped them bring about that previous acclaimed effort.
It isn’t a direct follow on however and finds the band again experimenting with their sound over the course of forty-three minutes and nine tracks. With only one song under the four-minute mark, these songs have certainly been given room to breathe.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘GOING SHOPPING’
The outcome can at times mean the songs and the album drag a little. There is still a really solid album in here somewhere though and certainly long-term fans will find something for themselves.
The build up has been typically nonchalant with the band cooly setting the album loose. They are after all a band that do things their own way and that’s the tone of the album itself. This is The Strokes playing around and creating the record they wanted to for themselves more than anyone.
It doesn’t go as far as being self-indulgent, but it will test the listener at times. The band exist in rarified air however and that’s part of the charm of this album.
Share our review on Social Media
Categories
Full Pelt Magazine
Vol. 144
Follow us on Social Media
Categories
The Menzingers
‘Everything I Ever Saw’
Follow us on Social Media
THE MENZINGERS – Everything I Ever Saw – Album Review
Twenty years into their career, The Menzingers remain as vibrant as ever on their fantastic eighth album, ‘Everything I Ever Saw’.
Yes, the formula remains intact as the four-piece again convene heartfelt lyrics and stirring punk rock beauty together to stunning effect. You’re already a fan? This is for you. You’re only now discovering the band? Jump in because this is for you!
With substantial personal events and the continuing maddening of the world giving the band more than enough inspiration, these are songs written by a band capable of capturing pure emotion on tape.
watch the video for ‘better angels’
Working with long-time collaborator, producer Will Yip, the band have managed to record a quintessential Menzingers album that with get you thinking and feeling in equal measure.
‘Chance Encounters’, ‘Better Angels’ and ‘Nobody’s Heroes’ gave a good advance feel of the album but each of the eleven tracks adds value to the overall package.
The album concludes with the title-track which perfectly puts a bow on what these songs mean. Thematically, this record is about reminiscing on the past in order to better inform the future. Something we should perhaps all get better at doing.
After all history is there to learn from, and some people in power need to do just that. Still if history is going to repeat itself, The Menzingers producing another great album should be it!
Share this review on Social Media
Categories
Yard Act
‘You’re Gonna Need a Little Music’
Follow us on Social Media
yard act – You’re Gonna Need a Little Music – album review
Leeds art rockers Yard Act are back with their third full length, ‘You’re Gonna Need A Little Music’.
Forming from the ashes of past projects the band were one of those able to grab attention at a time when the world was standing still. Whilst their debut album, ‘The Overload’, lived up to the hype and fulfilled it’s need, you could tell come sophomore release, ‘Where’s My Utopia?’, that the band were on a journey.
That journey continues now as they evolve further on album number three. With those first two albums being recorded on laptops, this album sees the quartet make an album together in a room as a live band for the first time!
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘NEW BEGINNINGS’
The result is a collection that certainly feels more attuned to their rambunctious live shows. Those absorbing vocals are still front and centre, but the music feels more important than ever as the sonic ambience of the record builds upon their earlier work superbly.
Lyrically you’re unlikely to be surprised to find the band again delivering razor-sharp social observations and asking some direct questions of the world we find ourselves in. Given the state of the world, it’s also probably not a total surprise to observe the noted increase in dark tone and cynicism.
Yard Act have firmly established themselves as essential listening and this latest album is a band stretching their creative legs!
Share this review on Social Media
Categories
The Rolling Stones
‘Foreign Tongues’
Follow us on Social Media
THE ROLLING STONES – FOREIGN TONGUES – ALBUM REVIEW
Over sixty years and twenty-five albums into their career, is there really anything left that can be written about The Rolling Stones. Arguably the greatest band of all time. Undoubtedly one of the most iconic. Truly the stuff of legend.
Equally, what is left for The Rolling Stones to write and release? They’ve released some of the biggest songs ever, the greatest albums, hit after hit. With the youngster of the group Ronnie Wood starring down the barrel of his eightieth birthday, you’d forgive the trio from enjoying a well-earned retirement.
But that has never really looked a realistic prospect. It always seemed the band would go for as long as possible and here we are with new album, ‘Foreign Tongues’!
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘IN THE STARS’
Produced with Andrew Watt and featuring guest appearances from the likes of Paul McCartney, Robert Smith, Chad Smith, Steve Winwood and Bruno Mars – this is a star-studded affair all around.
At fourteen tracks and a run time of over an hour, it’s no meagre offering either. Fans therefore get their moneys worth with this collection which the band are adamant won’t be their last.
The album features new compositions and a handful of recycled ‘Hackney Diamonds’ leftovers. Specially it also features one of the last recordings of the late Charlie Watts. Regardless of how each song formed though, throughout you are left in awe of the enduring songwriting skills of the iconic duo Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
After all of these years, the fact that the band can conjure songs as good as ‘Jealous Lover’, ‘Side Effects’ and lead single, ‘In The Stars’, is truly remarkable. So what is left to write about The Rolling Stones, everything and nothing all at once!
Share our review on Social Media
Categories
Jack White
‘Frozen Charlotte’
Follow us on Social Media
JACK WHITE – FROZEN CHARLOTTE – ALBUM REVIEW
Jack White seems at the peak of his powers at the moment. Acclaimed live performances, a hall of fame induction and a run of increasingly well received albums.
It will soon be thirty long years since White formed The White Stripes alongside Meg. He has remained a constant presence since their conclusion, be that his solo work or with the likes of The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. In fact, new album, ‘Frozen Charlotte’, is his nineteenth significant studio album across these different platforms.
He has never been afraid during this time to experiment and test himself, but good solid blues rock has always been the bedrock for his sonic exploration. It’s not surprise then that this sound is at the very core of this latest album.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘G.O.D. And The Broken ribs’
White doesn’t go for a large deal of fanfare and is instead content to quietly go about his business. The build towards this album hasn’t therefore seen any of the usual circus that follows releases from major artists.
What this does though is allow listeners to fully ingrain themselves into this new release with any pre-conceived notions beyond the fact it’s Jack White and Jack White is going to do Jack White things.
What they will find is a solid collection which stands up against his best work, albeit probably without some of the mainstream appeal of his bigger hits. This is instead Jack enjoying himself and playing for him and that’s always going to produce quality!
So regardless of which career touchpoint you picked up on the talented Mr White, here’s another enjoyable release to get teeth stuck into.
Share this review on Social Media
