CD reviews for May 11
May 11 2009 by Andrew Hirst, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
GREEN DAY: Know Your Enemy. Culled from their eagerly-awaited 8th studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, this is strutting guitar power rock and a repetitive chorus as subtle as a rhino in a glassware shop. In your face and in your brain even if it doesn’t trouble your imagination too much.
TOMMY SPARKS: She’s Got Me Dancing. Stuttering synth glitterball flare-up with a hookline big enough to land a whale.
EUREKA MACHINES: Everyone Loves You. The Leeds-based band conjures up images of the Beatles and the Beach Boys getting down on the dancefloor with the likes of Motorhead – an image that takes a lot of conjuring up. They’re a bit different.
TAKING BACK SUNDAY: Sink Into Me. Melodic punk, but peel back the layers and there’s a fine slice of songwriting going on amid the chaos. It keeps on surfacing before being dragged back down.
THE HOURS: See The Light. One of those albums that can draw you in straight in from the first chord – and then there’s very little let up even when they get all shimmering and reflective. There’s a musical urgency and vibrancy to The Hours along with a lyrical intuitiveness which makes time fly by. Great lines such as “when you’re going through hell, gotta keep going’’ and tracks like These Days build up the anticipation and keep the finger on the trigger, sometimes without ever quite firing. Choruses don’t come much bigger than Come On. Songs that mean something – opening track Big Black Hole may be a soaring anthem, but it’s about the bleakness of an alcoholic in denial. See The Light is the follow-up to their 1997 debut, Narcissus Road, and has been made possible by the art, inspiration and, to be blunt, cash of their mate, Damien Hirst. An album of hope.
DEPECHE MODE: Sounds Of The UniverseAfter all these years it’s probably not unsurprising that this is their 12th studio album. It’s got a dark and foreboding feel to much of it – and then even gets industrial with the likes of the synth-heavy Wrong. The odd melody bursts through – a vague nod to a time when they were light, carefree and boppy. That seems a long time ago.
ORIGINAL CAST: Dad’s Army. Recording of a live stage show in 1975 after 80 TV episodes. It had long since been deleted so a rare chance for fans to get it on CD and features stars such as Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Ian Lavender in sketches and songs. They even turn When Can I Have A Banana Again into a big production number. One for the devotees.
