Short Attention Span Record Reviews, March 2016 Vol. II

3 DOORS DOWN – Us And The Night
“Kryptonite” and “When I’m Gone” were guilty pleasures whenever they would play on the radio in the 00’s, but a history of two good songs does not a great band make and in 2016 I’d rather cut my ear off like Van Gogh than suffer through the sub-par AOR chug-along of this album one more time. (4)

AZIZA BRAHIM – Abbar El Hamada
Early contenter for world music album of the year by a Sahrawi (google it) singer blending North African, flamenco and blues influences. (8)

BLACK MOUNTAIN – IV
Some of their stuff sounds like The Cult songs being hijacked by Hawkwind but that’s fine, really. (8)

BOB MOULD – Patch The Sky
Another solid effort from ex-Husker Du frontman, a bit more melodic than “Beauty & Ruin” but still amped-up and in the Sugar vein. It’s not going to win him a new audience but fanboys will be delighted. (8)

BRIAN FALLON – Painkillers
The Gaslight Anthem mainman explores his inner Springsteen. (7)

CHARLES BRADLEY – Changes
Attention music journalists under 30: The guy’s certainly likeable but just because you don’t know who James Brown is doesn’t make this a masterpiece. (7)

COLIN STETSON – Sorrow: A Reimagining of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony
Avant-garde saxophonist puts together an orchestra with electric guitars and synths on top, featuring members of Liturgy, Arcade Fire etc. and reinterprets Gorecki’s most famous classical piece. Fantastic, haunting stuff. (8)

FRANK TURNER – Mittens EP
A single from 2015’s somewhat disappointing “Positive Songs For Negative People” plus 4 unreleased songs from the same sessions, just to keep the fans on their toes until a hopefully stronger new album drops. (6)

HIPSHOT KILLER – They Will Try To Kill Us All
Given their exciting mix of power-pop and punk, describing themselves as “powerpunk” is pretty accurate. (8)

KANYE WEST – The Life Of Pablo
Revised version of his album doesn’t really offer anything spectacularly different from the previous version. (7)

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE – Incarnate
Metalcore fans will be thrilled with this, one of KE’s strongest efforts to date and an album that might just breathe some life into a dying genre. (8)

RICHMOND FONTAINE – You Can't Go Back If There's Nothing to Go Back To
You can’t be excited if there’s nothing to be excited about. (6)

RNDM – Ghost Riding
Side project of Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam) is all over the place, moving from 90’s Brit indie sounds to Bowie/Peter Gabriel rip-offs to electronica lite. (6)

SOUL ASYLUM – Change Of Fortune
Grunge-era “could-have beens” make half-baked attempt at a comeback. This is too glossy, almost AOR. (6)

SPIRITUAL BEGGARS – Sunrise To Sundown
Deep Purple from Lidl. (6)

THE BODY – No One Deserves Happiness
Punishing distorted noise and vocals that sound like a rooster being electrocuted, as another reviewer very accurately put it, combined with industrial dance rhythms and angelic choirs defies all expectations and produces something suffocating, but totally original. (8)

THE HANGING STARS – Over The Silvery Lake
Wow. Excellent debut from London-based psychedelic folk/rock band evokes the spirit of 1967, Buffalo Springfield and the Byrds. I’ll be playing this a lot. (8)

THE TREATMENT – Generation Me
Awful album cover but great tunes – UK youths turn their songwriting up a notch and rock out like Tesla pretending to be an AC/DC tribute band. Great performance from the new singer. (8)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Brown Acid: The First Trip 1969-79
Fantastic collection of underground 45’s from totally unknown American proto-metal bands. Most tracks are from 1969-74 so the addition of Tour and Josefus from 1979 is a bit baffling, but they rock nonetheless. (8)