LOW ISLAND 'If You Could Have It All Again'

Album review by Alan Neilson

What is interesting about my feelings towards Low Island, is that for each of their earlier single releases I was asked to review the songs, but never felt enough love for them until now, when I listened to the album in full.

And then it was ‘Hey Man’ the opening song on ‘If You Could Have It All Again’ that opened the door for me; it’s strange how indifference can turn to love by seeing something from a slightly different angle.

I think my initial reticence came from the band’s image and a feeling that this is just another group of young, white men from Oxford, who are not too dissimilar to that other band of white men from Oxford; with their falsettos, angular synths and raw, but tasteful guitars.

There is a whole, wider argument about representation in the music business, which I won’t go into here, but suffice to say my heart dies a little everyday when I keep getting asked to review another all male, all white band. Thankfully Low Island are doing something that is interesting enough that my prejudices have been put to one side.

I can’t think of another album where the first track is so different from the songs that follow. Thankfully that track ‘Hey man’ is of such originality and quality, it drew me into the music of Low Island, and although the songs that come after may not have been enough on their own to make me love their debut album at first, I listened to it through the experience of that opening track. It really is mesmerising, containing as it does a repeating note like Laurie Anderson’s ‘O Superman’ and frantic drums like late period Radiohead.

‘Hey man’ starts out sounding like Aqualung until the jagged drum rolls and single percussive hits crack open the sensitive shell of the song and reveal real gold. But just when you think it is going to start in an Elbow driving rhythmic style, the song ends and the temporary silence is followed by the pumping ‘What Do You Stand For’, which could not be more different, sounding as it does like a club track meeting Art Brut head on, with its markedly different vocal spoken/sung style against a pumping backbeat. Wickedly sharp lyrics and truly danceable beats show immediately the band are not a one trick pony.

‘Don’t Let the Light’ follows and again is like neither of the previous tracks, it has a foot in clubland, but a softer vocal and trance like vibe pulls it into a pop arena. The album‘s lack of a defining genre makes it almost lack a cohesiveness, but at the same time keeps the listener’s attention, even if it is just based on a feeling of what the hell are they gonna do next… and that next thing is a reprise of the previous track in ballad form; a prize for anyone who guessed that.

‘In Your Arms’ follows and features a stunning chord progression against another trance like groove, but this time with stunning ethereal backing vocals, complimenting the lead voice. The danceable rhythms and spiky synths continue through the next tracks, but there is a real humanity to the songs. The performances and production is practically perfect so you would be forgiven for believing this is all the work of robots, auto-tune and computer chips, but there is a beautiful soul to this music that reminds me of the stunning Broken Bells’ second album. Humans and machines can work together and Low Island balance the organic with the electronic exquisitely.

The album reminds me of when clubs had separate rooms for different music genres (do they still do that?). Each song has a different vibe to it and even on ‘Momentary’, which feels like the chill out room as the tempo drops and the voice softens, but then you hear drums coming through the wall, calling you back into the club. And then you are back in the dark sticky room, ‘Spaces Closing In’ eases you back in with its mid-paced tempo and rockier sound.

The final track ‘What the Hell (Are You Gonna Do Now?)’ again is in a different room, more withdrawn and indie and the spoken section at the end could almost be a conversation in the toilet before you walk home alone at the end of night, even down to the way the sentence is cut off before it finishes. The song does kind of close the album in an understated way rather than a blast of energy, but that is part of the album’s charm, providing unexpected turns and endings, jumping between genres, one moment gentle, the next forceful and brash.

Of course genre hopping is a double edged sword, particularly within the same album. I happen to love a contrast of styles by the same artist, but there are others who like a certain sound and want a band to be something tangible and remain constant, at least for eleven songs.

I understand Low Island are self-releasing ‘If You Could Have It All Again’ and that kind of tells a story of how a record label could not pigeonhole the band for the marketplace (or of course the band refused to be pigeonholed). But I do wonder if Low Island know who their target audience is: indie kids, club heads, or an older audience who recognise the artistry and references in the songs? This album could appeal to that whole cross section, but equally could end up alienating them all as well. I mean, what is Low Island?

The band asks the question in a roundabout way in their song, ‘What Do You Stand For’ and as John Mellencamp said, in the music industry as in life, “You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.” In some ways Low Island are standing for something simply by being themselves, with all their contradictions, mistakes and conflicts, but still there is a slight loss in clarity in the signals they give out… in today’s music industry the package is more important than the contents, especially without a major label’s marketing budget. I only hope Low Island will reach glorious heights.

Released April 2021, the album is available now via the band’s own Emotional Interference imprint, through their official outlet:

1.Hey man
2. What Do You Stand For
3. Don't Let The Light In
4. Don't Let The Light In (Reprise)
5. In Your Arms
6. Who's Having The Greatest Time?
7. Feel Young Again
8. I Do It For You
9. Momentary
10. Spaces Closing In
11. What The Hell (are you gonna do now?)

‘Today We’re The Greatest’ by Middle Kids

Middle Kids - ‘Today We’re The Greatest’ (new album)

Review by Alan Neilson

I hate being late to a party and having only discovered the majesty of the band Middle Kids recently, I feel  I am years late to this particular knees up, as they have been releasing great records since 2017/18.  Although the upside to that is having fallen immediately in love with the lead single releases from the forthcoming ‘Today We’re The Greatest’ album (‘R U 4 Me?’, ‘Questions’ and ‘Cellophane (Brain)’) I now have their previous album and eps to listen to immediately… and it is all good; even lead singer and songwriter Hannah Joy’s solo releases from 2013.  I know the band is from Australia, but why does it take the rest of the world so long to catch up?  A problem I am acutely aware of from following their countrymen Gang of Youths, another spectacularly good Australian band that was lost somewhere over the Atlantic.

Middle Kids’ latest release ‘Today We’re The Greatest’ starts in a low key mid-tempo way with opening tracks ‘Bad Neighbours’ and ‘Cellophane (Brain)’, only kicking in halfway through the second song before ramping up the energy again on the blissed out indie-pop of ‘R U 4 Me?’ with its insistent driving rhythm and call to arms “Do not ignore me!”.

If anyone ever needed a lesson in writing a definitive pop song, then next track ‘Questions’ would be an example of how to do it.  The build up is like a perfect mathematical equation for an upwards curve, but it never feels as if that was a deliberate intention, it just naturally gathers momentum; most good pop songs sound effortlessly brilliant and this is no exception.  The release of tension almost exactly halfway through when the drums and brass burst in sends tingles across my brain and as such it fulfils the prime function of a pop song, when it ends, you want to hear that build up all over again.  Still, this is not a simple arrangement, use of syncopated claps and offbeat snare hits give it a jerky feel that may confuse or excite first-time listeners.  I am always excited to hear songs that don’t use a standard four on the floor rhythm.

The momentum built up with these banging tracks is soon halted and there is a lull after the pop rocket that is ‘Questions’, but what ‘Lost in Los Angeles’ and ‘Golden Star’ lose in vitality they more than makeup for in melody.  It does feel that the album peaks with the three lead singles coming one after another as tracks 2-4, and then there is a slow descent to the end because the dynamics in the album’s sequencing are shaped like a scalene obtuse triangle (there are those in the industry who say this is the best way to sequence an album these days but I think it is wrong).  There is still some energy in the tumbling toms of ‘Summer Hill’ and there are echoes of the wonderful Courtney Barnett in the beautiful ‘Some People Stay In Our Hearts Forever’ with the way Middle Kids also effortlessly allow a song to unravel before a listener.   ‘Run With You’ picks up the pace from the pedestrian but it doesn’t initially sparkle or leave a lasting impression.

There is a short punky burst in the song ‘I Don’t Care’ but it feels quite out of character when they throw the F bomb into the chorus and repeat the line over and over.  It is odd because everything else Middle Kids do is clever and intentional, whereas this feels dumb and naïve.  I don’t believe the phrase ‘I don’t care’ is made more powerful by the addition of ‘fucking’ (“I don’t fucking care, I gotta do what I want to”) – it just sounds like a child trying to shock.  Maybe younger fans will love screaming this out at gigs (when live music eventually happens again) and feel like they are sticking it to the man, but Middle Kids are much more rebellious than this.

‘Stacking Chairs’ also does not stand out particularly with its overused trope: ‘if the world falls apart I will be there’ – strangely this does sound less clichéd the more often you hear it.
They close the album in an understated way with the title track ‘Today We’re The Greatest’, almost as a way of subverting the arrogance in the title.  You would expect Hannah to be shouting the lyrics in a song called this, but she sings in her beautifully fragile falsetto voice and the phrase feels more like a reluctant battle cry as she follows that statement with the line, “even though we feel so small”.  It is an interesting choice of arrangement as you would expect the title song to be apex of the album rather than a polite shuffling out the door, but the album is full of surprises and unexpected turns, so showing this kind of artistic bravery has to be applauded.  The honesty of the final lyrics is “Life is gory and boring sometimes”

Having lived with the album for a few weeks now, it is clear that when you get beyond the singles, the other songs are slow burners – and these are the ones that you almost rediscover with multiple listens.  They don’t have an immediate impact it is true and many listeners might find themselves skipping them or wrongly classifying them as filler.  Just listen again for the shuffling drum beat and banjo on ‘Lost in Los Angeles’; the choir like outro of ‘Golden Star’ and its nod to Turin Breaks’ ‘Feeling Oblivion’; the nod to Stevie Nicks’ vocal and Mick’s drums in ‘Summer Hill’; and the real heartbeats at the end of ‘Run With You’.

I guess the issue for me is the track order, when I started the album at ‘Lost in Los Angeles’, with the first four tracks coming in after ‘Stacking Chairs’, there felt more of a build up to the life affirming final song .  Maybe these days labels want to grab the listener quickly rather than risk a more leisurely meandering build up. 

There is an clear progression in the band’s sound and this album sees a slight move away from the overdriven guitars of their early work.  The echoes of 90’s indie rock bands like Belly and Bettie Seveert have morphed into a more sophisticated use of instrumentation, with guitars, although present not always the focal point.  Also on previous recordings I felt that Hannah had overdone a heavy vibrato on her vocal, which seemed a little contrived, but on ‘Today We’re The Greatest’ she has found her true voice and it resonates with a rawness, an energy and total conviction.  I would place her alongside some of indie’s greatest vocalists: Carol van Dijk; Nina Persson; Harriet Wheeler; Aimee Mann; and Courtney Barnett.

Hannah has sited one of her main songwriting influences as Neil Finn and although their styles may differ, at the heart of their work is really well constructed songs; and like Crowded House, there is depth with great intelligence and emotion in the lyrics.  The band speaks of making music that loves the listener (whatever that means) and how complex making that happen actually is, when words can often be misconstrued.  They kind of clarify this by saying: “It can be easier to live dualistically, splitting the world in two -we want to be able say it’s this or it’s that, but sometimes it’s both — and can we hold both?  Can we hold the brokenness?  Can we hold the beauty?  That has definitely been a defining bit of this album, the fragility in that dance.”  If feels then that the Middles Kids are championing the grey areas in life, the difficult places where others are afraid to go because there is never anything certain there.  I applaud them for that and will watch where they explore next.

‘Today We’re The Greatest’ by Middle Kids is available from 19 March 2021 on Lucky Number

Track-list: Bad Neighbours, Cellophane (Brain), R U 4 Me?, Questions, Lost in Los Angeles, Golden Star, Summer Hill, Some People Stay In Our Hearts Forever, Run With You, I Don’t Care, Stacking Chairs, Today We’re The Greatest

Today We’re The Greatest follows the release of Middle Kids’ critically acclaimed 2018 debut, Lost Friends, which was awarded Album of the Year by Australia’s Triple J Radio and nominated for Best Rock Album at the ARIA Awards. The record also earned them support slots with the likes of Bloc Party, War on Drugs and Cold War Kids as well as several US TV show performances including Conan, Jimmy Kimmel and The Late, Late Show with James Corden.

Midlight - “Emergency Song”

A review by Alan Neilson.

View fullsize

Midlight are back, having survived the difficult year that we don’t mention now, in which they released two cracking singles and despite not being able to tour and promote them, managed to find support from 6Music and also joined Brighton’s Airdriver Records, who are releasing the band’s single for 2021: the aptly titled ‘Emergency Song’. The band introduce this new song by saying it “was written at the very start of the pandemic, as the workings of society came to an abrupt halt. The song explores the crisis in a nuanced way, examining the experience of a character who is in a position of power – someone who only knows what it is to live for today in a dog-eat-dog world.”

‘Emergency Song’ is a slight departure from previous releases in that rhythmically it is much less complex allowing the lead vocal and strummed acoustic guitar to take centre stage. It is almost two minutes into the song before the song’s dynamics step up a gear and the hypnotic guitar drones and long synth lines give room to the drum track and a beautifully restrained guitar solo. Melodically it feels like a Gregorian chant with drawn out notes moving only in semi-tones with no great leaps between pitches. It becomes mesmerising as the voices double up and the song builds up tonally into a wall of overlapping drones and sounds. Consequently what Midlight gain through creating this heavy cinematic atmosphere they lose in obvious melodic or rhythmic hooks, but they are there if you listen long enough. The dynamic arc of the song reminds me of Radiohead’s ‘Exit Music (For A Film)’ and it will appeal to those who enjoy the journey of a song rather than a snappy chorus.

On the 7 inch vinyl limited edition fans are also treated to an actual bona fide B side with their new track ‘The Future’s Not Cancelled’ which is exclusive to the vinyl release. It will be a limited run but this song is good enough to warrant rushing to get the vinyl edition, with its laid back more simple arrangement, built around an acoustic guitar and vocal, and containing pertinent lyrics for our time: “This song may not be the song you need to hear right now, but it’s the one that’s coming out of me” - it is a perfect accompaniment to the A side and one of the best songs I have heard about the pandemic with a rousing chorus of “We will get through I know we will”.

The two songs succinctly capture the mood of the last twelve months from the stark realism of ‘Emergency Song’ to the overwhelming optimism of ‘The Future’s Not Cancelled’. It may be that we soon become swamped by pandemic and post-pandemic songs, as we dwell on the old normal, the new normal or the new abnormal. However, Midlight paint with an extremely subtle brush and I am sure there is little chance that these songs will lose their resonance as we move out of this pandemic.

Midlight’s - ‘Emergency Song’ is available now on Airdriver Records.

Bachelor - 'Anything At All' (Latest single)

Bachelor - ‘Anything At All’

Single review by Alan Neilson

Bachelor is Jay Som and Palehound’s new joint project, and their first song ‘Anything At All’ is out now and it is stunning. Blessed with an almost perfect groove from a deceptively simple opening bass and drum combo, the song slowly develops adding synths and vocals until it practically bursts from your speakers with a dirty lead guitar break.

Just when you think it is going to follow convention and do the repeat chorus and groove to the end, they instead go for a maelstrom of guitar feedback and synth noise, which just when you think it is fading gets louder and louder.

And then when you think the song has finished the bass and drum groove returns but cut back more than when it came in… and then when you don’t expect it to finish, it does. Boom.

The first time I heard this I was mesmerised from start to finish and found its twists and turns and individuality captivating. The contrast between the funky groove, the beautifully filthy overdriven guitars and the angelic vocals is beguiling and the partnership of Melina Duterte and Ellen Kemper is already a perfect match.

The only negative is the artwork for the single. When you look at Jay Som and Palehound’s previous releases, there is a sense of style, whereas as the ‘Anything At All’ cover looks like the first image you’d get with a inserting random images and text into a Word document. As this image is the first thing potential listeners see before hearing the magic behind it, I fear it might not grab their attention. But those who pass will be missing out big time.

I am so excited to hear what they release next.

Bachelor’s single ‘Anything At All’ is out now from all download stores.