Album review: FRANKIE & THE HEARTSTRINGS - Hunger

Highlights: Photograph, Ungrateful, Fragile, Tender, Want You Back

This is simple. A band influenced by Dexys Midnight Runners with the energy rush of Franz Ferdinand and produced by Edwyn Collins of Orange Juice. That gives a more or less perfect description of Frankie & The Heartstrings’ music and, indeed, their debut album. 
Last year’s promising Ungrateful EP showed a very capable band playing soulful, melodic post-punk music with great retro feel. But with all the influences Frankie & The Heartstrings fell for, Hunger is still full of the kind of identity-lacking personality that is very characteristic of contemporary art. It’s all very self-assured, very insistent. There’s lots of pulsating bass, gutsy and tasteful guitar (including some excellent solos), and soulful, intense singing – all those things that thanks to Collins’ smart production blend into an absolutely charming, good-spirited mix.

The Heartstrings’ signature single “Ungrateful” is particularly noteworthy. Expertly structured, it really is the ideal representation of Hunger: full of heartfelt, dramatic vocals, unforgettable hooks, and the band’s terrific chemistry. But besides the great harder-edged tracks (the opening outburst of “Photograph” or the punkish, jerky “It’s Obvious”), Hunger also delivers great slower, more soulful numbers like the lengthy “Fragile” or the horn-filled “Want You Back” that is especially indebted to the music of Dexys.

No idea what this year will amount to in the end, but this feels like 2011’s strongest debut so far. A real riot of catchy, danceable melodies and intelligence. Even if Hunger does sound like the 80s.

8/10

SONG OF THE WEEK #15: The Church - "Hounds Of Love"

The Church are of course one of Australia’s all-time best. Of the three bands from that great Triad (the other two being The Triffids and The Go-Betweens, of course), Steve Kilbey’s act is the only surviving one, the only one that keeps going strong and releasing amazing records. That’s some dedication. 

This one's a rather rare performance of theirs, a cover of Kate Bush’s “Hounds Of Love”. The Church covering Kate Bush… sounds as dreamy, jangly and gorgeous as you would imagine. Can be found on the band’s recent Coffee Hounds EP (2009).

Album review: DESTROYER - Kaputt

Highlights: Chinatown, Savage Night At The Opera, Suicide Demo For Kara Walker

For me Dan Bejar's music is most effective when least meandering – like Destroyer’s classic Streethawk: A Seduction (2001) or his consistently great contributions to The New Pornographers. On Kaputt, though, he goes for this reflective, sax-filled night-time mood that doesn’t necessarily mean sharper songs. To say nothing of more straightforward - but then Bejar has never been about conventional songwriting... 

Dan's main strength is his affluent way with vocal hooks; I’m talking about those catchy, whimsical lines that keep springing and creeping up like crazy. That “I heard your record it’s all right” lyric from “Savage Night At The Opera”, for instance. But Kaputt could be Destroyer's most expertly, elaborately produced album, so it also offers a number of brilliant instrumental passages. Among those I could mention the pretty flute lines in the slow, atmospheric “Suicide Demo For Kara Walker” (one of the record's highlights) as well as those saxophones, of course, that dominate huge sections of the record. 

And yet I feel slightly underwhelmed. By occasional lack of tunefulness, substance – best heard on the lengthy part-ambient/part-the usual epic closer, “Bay Of Pigs”. It suits the album’s mood fine, no doubt, and it still has plenty of Dan Bejar’s verbose, charismatic melodicism, but overall I guess that’s just a little too long-winded and yes, somewhat meandering. 

Still, I rather welcome this slight conceptual change. After all, if you love Bejar’s style, Kaputt will just keep oozing its poetic, stream-of-consciousness hooks and enchanting you with its nocturnal vibe. 


7/10

SONG OF THE WEEK #14: Half Man Half Biscuit - "For What Is Chatteris..."

Whenever a Half Man Half Biscuit record is on, a certain part of me keeps insisting this is the best band in the world playing. Pure energy, hooks, intelligence, guts. Obviously there’s this second, more reasonable part of me resisting that call, but if a band manages to trigger that kind of admiration, even for a minute or two, it makes it all worth it.  

There are loads of fantastic live versions of “For What Is Chatteris…” (off the greatly titled Achtung Bono, 2005) around (HMHB are, needless to say, a hugely entertaining live band; I’m speaking from experience – saw them in Brampton a couple of years ago), but I picked the original simply because the video is so hilarious. Same goes for the song - of course.

Album review: THE UNTHANKS - Last

Highlights: Gan To The Kye, The Gallowgate Lad, Give Away Your Heart, Starless

Of all the folk revivalists of today, The Unthanks (sisters Rachel and Becky, basically) offer the biggest deal in terms of authenticity. With their poignant, sophisticated arrangements and heartfelt vocals, they make it sound truly genuine. 

Having loved their previous album, the acclaimed Here’s The Tender Coming (2009), I of course had no desire to be let down by Last. I was not; the deal is the same: moving, ancient-sounding English ballads with haunting tunes, delicate piano lines (I particularly love “Give Away Your Heart”), sorrowful cellos and violins, occasional acoustic guitars. My favourite is probably the slow waltz of “The Gallowgate Lad”, but once you are soaked in their mood, The Unthanks don’t really fail. I even feel mesmerised by the sparse, mysterious “Close The Coalhouse Door” (well, this being Tyneside, of course…).   

Besides the obligatory traditional songs and rather predictable covers, they also offer a couple of big surprises. For instance, they cover Tom Waits’ “No One Knows I’m Gone” (from the equally cheerless Alice) and even (gasp) King Crimson’s “Starless”. But unless you look in the sleeve notes or know those songs (which you should), you won’t believe they are in fact covers. The Unthanks make them their own, age-old but timeless. 

For me, this is traditional English folk music as it should be done. If you are in a melancholy, brooding mood, that is. 

8/10