Classic Album Review: The Maccabees -‘Colour It In’

 

As The Macabees have just released their critically acclaimed fourth album ‘Marks to Prove it’, it would be interesting to take a step back and look at where they started by zoning in on their colourful debut album ‘ Colour It On’.

When the album came out the indie music scene was in a a relatively dire state, with only Arctic Monkeys only really flying the flag, do not even mention Razorlight. They had one song. So when The Maccabees graced us with this album it was like breath of fresh air after a year working in a dust ridden warehouse.

The album had a number of high points throughout, and never lets you down with any song. You can nit pick all you like but, you’ll struggle to find a fault.  As the album opener ‘Good old Bill’ settles you in , ‘X-Ray’ hits you and you weren’t ready for it. The frantic pace of the song is good enough, but combined with the aggressive riff the song completely blows it out the water.

‘All In Your Rows’ , ‘Latchmere’ and ‘About Your Dress’ provide you with with those moments of the crowd unifying and screaming the words straight back at the band. Not all songs have to be intricate and mind boggling and, these songs prove it as none of them are particularly doused with guitar trickery,but they have the vital component which is getting you hooked.

The highlight of the album could be several songs, but for in this particular instance it’s ‘First Love’ as it takes you from the depths of subtle guitar playing to a complete riot. The Maccabees have this particular skill in abundance, and the frightening fact is that they had it from the get go.

Each classic album has that slow song, which everyone attempts to learn on guitar and sing to themselves about a girl, ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ is that song. Its completely stripped back to an almost lo-if recording with the vocals and guitar sounding underproduced, giving it that honest feeling, which surround ps the album.

This sparked off something that has blossomed into one of the UK’s most underrated bands, but the people who appreciate and understand The Maccabees, will hold them dear forever.

Words by Alex Wise @al4563

 

 

Classic Albums: The Cribs – ‘The New Fellas’

For anybody who doesn’t know, I’m a huge Cribs fan. I was a late bloomer, as I joined the party just before they released “In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull”, however this does not change the way I felt about this album the first time it graced my ears.

“The New Fellas” is arguably the Wakefield trios best record to date, due to the rawness the band had at the time but this maturity of how to write a catchy pop song. A common feature in most great albums is the passion they have for what they sing about, and The Cribs choose topics that everyone could relate to and felt strongly about.  The brothers wrote songs about the scene that they had fallen into, the people that surrounded the scene and how they felt they were changing as people, as well as a band. For example “Hey Scenesters” confronted people that felt the need to jump into new scenes to feel relevant, and while the topic of the song was so ballsy, the simple thrashy riff gave the fans something to throw themselves around to.

Now to move onto the music side of the album, this has never really been challenged by any band in this field, because no one can do it like The Cribs. Overtime they’ve developed their very own sound and still continue to run with it. With Ryan’s notable guitar riffs, which could be spotted from a mile away, and their rural vocals the tracks automatically have their own identity and this record confirmed it. Tracks like “We Can No Longer You” and “Hello?Oh…” are completely stripped back and have the bare minimum holding them together, but because of the pure catchiness, they’re so difficult not to be admired.

It would be rude not to speak about “Mirror Kissers” a song that is still regarded as one of the best indie track to date. Once again they pick a topic that can be related to by everyone, hipsters who love themselves, and hipsters are still alive and kicking today. The repatative nature of the song should smell doom, but the attitude brought by the vocals along with its raucous overtones is too much not to admire.

One song that is of an acquired taste,  and is only love by true Cribs fans is “It Was Only Love”, in which you hear Ryan completely let himself go vocally and complete a duet with an accordion, a song which you can sing when you have no wits about you.

Overall the album is ranked as one of my favourites by any band, let alone just The Cribs. After over a thousand plays it still hasn’t lost its shine purely because of the depth to each track, you simply cannot listen once have the song sussed out. Their debut album “The Cribs” put the band out there and will always be highly regarded by die-hard fans, however this album really set themselves apart from any band and proved that they weren’t just your average “indie” band that was going to lose its lust after one album.

Words By Alex Wise @al4563

 

 

The Last of the Shadow Puppets – The Age Of The understatement

Right, writing about this song because me and my mate were practising and it was hard, and I had the fucking easier bit, not completely easy but easy compared to what my mate was doing, dunno how the fuck he was doing it. Of course when I write that I’m writing about the  strumming for this song, Turner looks like he’s gonna explode all over Miles and his beautiful face.

The lads, just chilling out, looking sexy and that

Of course this song was on their first and only album (not for long I hope, and I’m sure lots of other people are hoping too) , the songs was also titled as the albums name. Before I look at the song, the album is brilliant, there’s not many albums where I can listen to all the songs without skipping them and this is one of them, however some of them are quite short and you’re just shouting at the CD player (or whatever you play it on) ‘one more verse lads, so I can hear that chorus one more time’, but I suppose that’s one of the factors that make it so brilliant, it leaves you wanting more.

I think the song is a brilliantly pieced together, with Miles chipping in every now and then with a little diddy, which really adds a lot to the piece. Even though Turner is teaming up with Miles for this, I don’t think it takes anything away from his song writing technique with those long wordy lyrics, and sometimes I don’t know how it fits in, if anything I think Miles brings a lot to the table and brings a good mix. If anything I think Miles and Alex have a brilliant repertoire, which is quite rare and people struggle to find that even after years of being together. I also like how fast paced it is, and keeps that speed throughout the whole song and doesn’t slow down.

So yeah, brilliant song and hopefully the lads will grace the world with another album of theirs, if we could be so lucky. If you like this song it’s worth having a look at some of their other songs. HAVE A LISTEN!