Music Review: City and Colour LIVE

Leeds O2 Academy - 25.01.14

Words: Lindsay Bradley

It was a miserable Saturday evening in Leeds, the wind and the rain made it a difficult walk up to the O2 Leeds Academy. As I walked inside at 8:30, City and Colour were just coming onto the stage. The early set time was due to some club night on after. Fair enough.

The band opened their set with the wistful ambience track ‘Of Space and Time’ taken off their new album The Hurry and the Harm. This album, in my opinion, is Dallas Green’s best work yet. The opening track reaffirmed this belief and from that moment onward, the audience had forgotten their worries and the weather outside.

When ‘Body in a Box’ from Bring Me Your Love began, the crowd cheered. When you read the lyrics it is not the cheeriest of songs (We celebrate the lives of the dead / It's like a man's best party, only happens when he dies.), but the Leeds crowd sang along at the top of their lungs. Everyone was so joyful and excited to be at the show. The atmosphere in the venue united the crowd, nothing could bring them down - it was just a shame a pint of Tuborg cost a painful £4.50.

Old favourites such as ‘Sleeping Sickness’ flawlessly fitted in with the likes of stripped down ‘The Grand Optimist’. The mixture of full band and solo acoustic fitted well, as he played the relatively upbeat ‘Fragile Bird’ with its reverberating guitar, taken from 2011’s Little Hell.

There was some banter during fan favourite ‘Comin’ Home’. As Dallas sang, ‘I’ve seen a palace in London / I’ve seen a castle in Wales’, the crowd jokingly booed and in typical Yorkshire style, and chants of ‘Yorkshire, Yorkshire’ erupted. Dallas stopped mid-song and joked ‘This ain’t a fuckin’ soccer game, chill out!’ Everyone laughed and he continued the song with a new zest of enthusiasm, feeding off the crowd’s energy.

Indeed, City and Colour are not an upbeat cheery outfit but they have a similar effect of  Chris Carrabba’s Dashboard Confessional. Dallas Green’s ability to bring a crowd together to make them feel not so alone is no easy feat. He achieves this with ease and the audience becomes his to play, their energy drives him through the set.

However, the show could not last forever. They closed the set with the haunting ‘Death’s Song’, the echoing ‘woah’s’ are still firmly stuck in my head two days later. People were not ready to go home but the eighteen song set was soon over. As we all headed outside, we were hit with the cold bitter wind of reality.  

Oxford Road Rating: ★★★★★

Music Review: Drive Shaft - Oil Change

Words: Lindsay Bradley

It is coming up to ten years since the fateful Oceanic flight 815 crash, with Drive Shaft bassist Charlie Pace on board. Since then, Drive Shaft has released a greatest hits album and a tour to accompany it. Everyone seems to have fond memories of the band, yet very few were actually part of it.

The Manchester band shot to fame in 2000 with their radio friendly hit 'You All Everybody' taken from their moderately successful self-titled debut. Two years later, they released their second album Oil Change with very little fanfare. In fact, very little was mentioned of the album and it was not until I was looking through Poundland that I saw the album on sale. It was only a pound and I was bored. Since the plane crash a few writers like myself, decided to revisit the album. Spin.com has actually compared the album to Weezer’s Pinkerton as a ‘lost classic’. No pressure then lads.

From hearing the first notes of the opening track ‘Vent’, I knew I had made a terrible mistake. Lead singer Liam attempts to croon sorrowfully with hardly the most imaginative lyrics, ‘Well I fell into a terrible lie / It seems my life was passing me by’. It was only the first song yet I already wanted to commit murder (half-kidding).

Through perseverance, it does get slightly better; ‘Ask me Again’ provides an indie-pop outlook to the Hollywood life. The catchy guitar hook teamed with the relentless percussion carried the lyrics well. ‘The door revolves, you’ve got to spin.’ This lyric signifies Drive Shaft’s short-lived career. It might have been a hit for the radio, but it was not meant to be.

The final track ‘Last Call’ should have been a poignant close to the album. Hearing Liam and Charlie sing ‘I wanna go home now’ is somewhat emotional, but I imagine hearing it back twelve years ago would have been painful for all the wrong reasons. There is nothing more displeasing than hearing grown men wail and attempt to imitate Chris Cornell and fail miserably.

The album could have been worse - Drive Shaft no longer sounds like a cheap copy of Oasis. It is clear that they had tried to come up with a new sound but by this point, it was too late. Drive Shaft will forever be remembered as one-hit wonders thanks to ‘You All Everybody’.

Digging through the past can sometimes unearth gems, but in the case of Oil Change, some things should just stay buried.

Oxford Road Rating: ★

Why did Oasis never sue for this blatant rip off?

Music Review: Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt

Words: Graeme Roberts

Pearl Jam recently returned with their tenth studio album in a career spanning four decades.  After the disappointing Backspacer (2009), Lightning Bolt sees the band collect their best elements together to create arguably their most consistent record since their stunning 1991 debut Ten.

Opening track ‘Getaway’ sounds like a more mature take on ‘Brain of J’ (which opened 1998’s Yield) with flashes of the middle moments of 2002’s Riot Act.  As in the better songs on their eponymous effort from 2006, the guitar riffs are edgy, the chorus as catchy as a pop song and the track is beefed up by pounding drums and driving bass.

Eddie Vedder’s gravel-like voice, one of sounds which defined the heyday of grunge in the early 1990s, is back to its best. The former surfer really gets his growl going on ‘Mind Your Manners’, an upbeat number with all the spunk and head-banging know-how of concert staple ‘Spin the Black Circle’ from 1994’s Vitalogy.

Lyrically, there are flourishes too. Take the chorus from ‘My Father’s Son’ which reminds of the reflective, pseudo-scientific mysticism of 2000’s Binaural:

   Can I get a reprieve?
   This gene pool drowning me
   Can I get a release? 
   I'm a volunteer amputee

   From the moment I fail
   I call on DNA
   Why such betrayal?
   Got me tooth and nail

It’s hardly Shaksepeare, but the simplicity of the message and effectiveness of the rhymes is a poetic success.  The last line is replaced in the final chorus with “I gotta set sail” and that is the fitting solution to the problem of biological constraints explored throughout the song. 

One of my biggest grievances with recent Pearl Jam records has been their tendency to produce an excess of soppy, unimaginative ballads where they once composed multi-layered slower songs of great poignancy.  The slower tracks on Lightning Bolt by no means match classics such as ‘Betterman’ or ‘Yellow Ledbetter’, but they are more accomplished and inventive than in recent years.  The guitar solo in ‘Sirens’ is one of the best on the album. 

Elsewhere, ‘Pendulum’ is a remarkably dynamic dirge which reminds at times of The Shadows, while stripped down closers ‘Yellow Moon’ and ‘Future Days’ could have been plucked from Vedder’s highly acclaimed solo Into the Wild soundtrack.

‘Infallible’ is the sort of song that has kept Pearl Jam bands loyal throughout the years.  A funky bassline and moody guitars blend with plinky percussion and Vedder’s sublime vocal melodies to create a triumphant sound that no other band on the planet could replicate.

Pearl Jam really soar on Lightning Bolt when they crank the energy up as high as their ageing limbs will allow, finding their finest groove with the title track and the bluesy ‘Let the Records Play.’ 

There are no bad tracks on Lightning Bolt, unlike many of Pearl Jam’s previous albums.  Deeper into the record, ‘Swallowed Whole’ and ‘Sleeping By Myself’ are tunes which refuse to sit still while offering some of the album’s catchiest choruses.

Although the songs on Lightning Bolt may not have the undeniable potency of legendary rock anthems like ‘Even Flow’ and ‘Alive’, they do exhibit a band now comfortable in its own skin yet still daring enough to tread new ground.  The balance, it seems, has finally been struck and I for one hope there’s plenty more to come from Pearl Jam.

Oxford Road Rating: ★★★★

Music Review: Twin Forks EP

Words: Lindsay Bradley

Cynics might say that the world doesn’t need another jangly, foot-stomping folk band, but with this five-track EP, Twin Forks definitely bring something new to the genre.  They successfully blend the popular folk-rock style with classic roots and country, adding their own unique slice of joyous zest.

The band, featuring Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional), Suzie Zeldin (The Narrative), Jonathan Clark and Benjamin Homola (Bad Books), have been working together for a while now and it shows - you can really hear how much they enjoy playing as a group.  

To complement their cohesion, Twin Forks offer a remarkably diverse sound.  The opening track ‘Back to You’ has a very organic feel to it, the unrefined sound shows that the band are more focused on providing a raw and honest performance.  When listening to ‘Cross my Mind,’ it’s hard not to smile and to resist singing along to the catchy chants from the opening notes. It becomes clear that listening to the EP is only half of the experience - this is the kind of band you go see live and join in with.

The five tracks explore a range of experiences, from finding love in ‘Back to You’ to fixing things in ‘Scraping up the Pieces’.  One cannot help but root for the guy who sings ‘I don’t have no ring but I can steal one on the way’ by the end of the EP.  The message is simple and we are all invited.

Carrabba’s voice is often scratchy and cracks at points but it blends nicely with Suzie Zeldin’s sweet harmonies.  Very much like Dashboard Confessional, the band want the audience to join the party. Only this time it’s not just a one-man-band; throughout you hear the various members of Twin Forks encouraging each other.  

It isn’t a perfect-sounding record by any means, but it has plenty of charm.  Each track is recorded live, which is testament to an authenticity of sound so often lacking in contemporary music.  The Twin Forks EP is a wonderfully cheerful record that will win over those in doubt.

The band is committed to the project and this is just the beginning.  Carrabba tells Billboard.com that they have a wealth of material, even as far to say that he "would like to release a song a month from the stash that won't be on the record." Who wouldn't love that? 

A full Twin Forks album is expected to be released at the beginning of 2014.

The EP is available now via iTunes and can be streamed here.

Oxford Road rating: ★★★★

Music Review: Jimmy Eat World LIVE

Manchester Academy 1 - 13/09/2013

Words: Lindsay Bradley

After a fun-filled set at Download festival in June, Jimmy Eat World returned to the UK in support of their new album Damage. The sold out show still had people queuing outside over an hour after doors opened and in typical Academy 1 style, the queues at the bars were a pain.

This did not dampen the crowd’s spirits when Jimmy Eat World walked on the stage. They opened their set with their catchy new track ‘I Will Steal You Back’ showing their new material is on par with the old. The 1 hour and 45 minute set was filled with hit after hit and whilst it would have been nice to hear some banter, the 25 song set was enough to compensate.

The opening chords of ‘My Best Theory’ really got the crowd excited as they sang along word for word. This is something that continued throughout the set, hits such as ‘The Authority Song’, ‘Work’ and ‘Bleed American’ just signify how extensive their music catalogue is. The band has been together for nearly 20 years and they have released eight albums. The energy they produced on stage shows that there are no signs of them stopping soon.  

Front man Jim Adkins even played a mini acoustic set including ‘For Me This Is Heaven'. He gave it his all but unfortunately the sound in the venue made it difficult to hear for those standing towards the back.

The set was somewhat predictable, with most of the tracks performed coming from 2001’s Bleed American. It would have been nice to hear the band end with something other than ‘The Middle’, but the Manchester crowd loved it.

If you have never seen Jimmy Eat World live, you are missing out on something special.

Oxford Road rating: ★★★★