180 by Palma Violets

8/10 

Rated:A Kind of Magic

Palma Violets debut album is just amazing; it is congruently, vintage, fun, fresh, harmonious just like their fist single and first song in the album ' Best of Friends'. 

The band had been compared with The Libertines and The Vaccines but the little notes of psychedelic music gives them a highlight on their style. In my opinion they're more like the English version of the first Tame Impala album but less tidy and less hallucinating. Many people tag them, as well, as a hype band  that just made an album in a hurry and maybe thats the feeling because songs are very jam-ish and garage but that's their essence, I think, it is what gives them a vintage vibe that many bands lost in the pursuit of perfection. These could be so savage but is more sweet  and like-able that come from how things interlace and interact with each other. 

The sound is nothing new, nothing that others haven't try but is the direction it takes what makes absolutely lovable. It is like instruments and voice are on different lines but in the same race and one is trying to equal the other, so captivating. The variations and twists the album gets, not just as a whole but in each song, melancholic or beach relaxing beginnings to punk like plots and brit pop endings, all mixed so good that make it cohesive, The transitions that joint the sounds are the beats that resembles to New Order and The Who but in a 2000's style also has a very influent Pop-Rock/Beat Music sensation a lot like Dire Straits. The sound pass through many facets, that goes from something you want to sing out louder because is so anthemic to something you might want to hear alone because is overwhelming  like song  'Chicken Dippersn' or like  'Three Stars'.

The perfect balance between heavy and soft and multiple variations of the same genre make an album that is amusing because sounds simple, doesn't not has pretentious tones, feel natural and reminds of bands that had been memorable.    

Recommend:  Best of Friends,All the Garden Birds, Chicken Dippersn,Three Stars,14 , Johnny Bagga’ Donuts

The Messenger by Johnny Marr

 7/10 

Rated:(I can't get no) Satisfaction 

Johnny Marr first proper solo album is probably not what is expected cause sounds so young(a bit amateur) and stuck in an era which make it sound a bit old.

The Messenger is an album that has come so late to the 'spirit' it has,is very 2006-2008, sounds like Kaiser Chiefs mixed with The Sunshine Underground but not so attractive because comes 5 years later to an alternative scene that has progressed goodly. But on the hand we've got an album that is very, so to speak, 'immature' , with the knowledge of all the decades Johnny has been a musician you expect to a more mature job, and hats off for that amazing work of sound young and like new but perhaps too clueless but from the 2nd half things get better, with song 'Generate! Generate!' it finally spice up the dullness and to the last song, 'Word Starts Attack', which is a culmination and explosion of nice job, it gradually shows what was the attempt of the album and is great.  

After the first potential 5 seconds, of the first song, therefore the album, the sound falls steeply and start sounding like Beady Eye which is fine but not enough. The Record has all the instruments playing really good beats though, all in a very dancelike mood mod/new wave/rock style and every song sound like two songs in one, I don't know if thats good or should be edited cos is a bit confusing. Songs are too long and to slow,they are fun but at some point they turn boring because there's nothing wild or surprising.The electronic side does give it a 80's feeling but not makes classics or interesting. 

Maybe the high expectations are what make this album a bit weak and the fact that it is trapped in a recent past that doesn't let it shine duly. For being a Johnny Marr "The Legend"  It needed to be more vibrating, more astonishing, more entertaining just a little more, because if it wasn't 'The Smiths' Guitarist, 'The Amazing Collaborator'  the record would be just one more and no one would pay attention. 

Recommended:  I Want The Heartbeat, Generate! Generate!, Sun And Moon, The Crack Up,   Word Starts Attack

Not: European Me,The Right Thing Right

You're Nothing by Iceage

 6.5/10 
Rated:(I can't get no) Satisfaction:

A little less overblown/produced than the first album this 2nd album is raw and smashing. Songs doesn't feel very mixed, the voice is in one place and music is far from there but as the album moves forward they start to blend and perhaps there is were the charm resides. 




The Sound is probably not the best these days but is really decent, if the intention was to make it sound rustic. It is really a hot mess but beats are incredible entertaining. Very Punk rock a là 1980's but up to date going more to the Rock And Roll side, maybe. Guitars and instruments sound class and almost always take over voice which is a bit weak compared to all other work but the percussion steals the show specially in more Pop-y songs like 'Awake' and ' Wounded Hearts'. But voice is really surprising in songs like 'Coalition' or were the gap between instruments and voice gets larger. 

The Album has a drunk aura that makes it more 'related-to' and a very nice powerful tenderness vibe which is at some point it get tedious,even thought it is fast and rock-y, it feels like it never gonna end. Compared to their fist album the quality is more poor here and the lack of something very attractive and intriguing makes a floppy album which just scores a "fine" piece.   

Recommended:  Coalition, Burning,  Morals, Wounded Hearts, It Might Hit First
Not So Much: In Haze, Ecstasy 

Push The Sky Away by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

 7/10 

Rated: A Kind of Magic

A pretty collection of new tracks from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, all on the sime line as always but a little slow tempo and more kind of sexual feeling.

This new album is a follow-up of their career  it's mature, doesn't fall apart from what we are accustomed. Album starts a bit slow and heavy but after song 'Water’s Edge' you wake up fast from that intense sensation. Not boring at all because all the mixture of different but matching ideas that maintain a climax during all record,except 'Mermaids' which is a bit of a wrecking song, but the feeling is very strength through the album.   

The sound of the record is very funeral-ish,  that magnificently varies to psychedelic to  grunge or from a interesting futuristic version of Suede  to orchestral and punk bits even hip-hop pieces like in the song 'Finishing Jubilee Street'. A very overwhelming sound that easily traps you, it speeds up and slow down at right time. The album doesn't sound old and has its moments of very modern music. 

Mostly the album is very "dark" but flows amazingly and the last song is a proper culmination of all the concept created, it ends soft and powerful. Is like a very essential album if you like the band and not gonna be disappointed.  

Recommended: Water’s Edge,Jubilee Street, We Real Cool,Push The Sky Away

Maybe not: Mermaids

Songs For Imaginative People by Darwin Deez

6/10
Rated: (I can't get no) Satisfaction

Darwin Deez are back with a bunch of the same.The second album has a lot of nice catchy songs but that at some point becomes boring and needs  to have something visual to accompany to not be that dull. Very 'retro' -in a 2001 mood- and a sense of of confusion. 

In 2010 the band released their debut album, Darwin Deez, their first single was 'Constellations' and if you have heard that song you probably have heard all what the band can give; Pretty much in the same line, just a little more disorderly  this new album is not so boring but is not enough. The album starts really annoying and gritty, immediately a controlled explosion but yet at the waiting that something huge happen and album returns to this feeling constantly. The record gets better with time and as the songs go by, something unite them but  aren't very relative in some way  and also very repetitive, the only song that do the same thing over and over again and is joyful is 'Chelsea’s Hotel'.   

The sound is not very mixed or fluent, everything is crashing and is forgiveable because is kind of their style but in some cases there are things that shouldn't be sounding or are at the wrong time. Some tracks has a lovely festival spirit like 'Moonlit' which sound oldie and sweet and the sound is very flowing. Voice makes songs better i,n some cases, because goes easy with the rhythm like in 'You Can’t Be My Girl', although the song sounds like Daft Punk is attacking it. Other good moments are when the songs gets rock and roll beats mixed with a soft 1980's dance and are more worked like  'Good To Lose' and 'No Love' but is always ruined at some point . 

'Songs For Imaginative People' is an album that can be delightful and fun if you doing some thing else because is entertaining but the lack of something wild and new is very disappointing and make it plain. And easy to identify the band in every track but at the same time is like "why they put this here " or "lovely but why are they repeating so much" so the album is a mix of emotions and weak compared with the predecessor. 

Recommended : All In The Wrist ,Red Shift , Moonlit,Chelsea’s Hotel.
Not The Best: Good To Lose, (800) – HUMAN