W/e 02/08/24 - Jack White, Empire of the Sun, American Aquarium, Rakim and Suede

Congrats to Jack White, straight into top spot for the year, just outside our overall top 10, where his 2022 offering sits at #2. He also has our TOTW.

At the other end, Empire of the Sun end up in our 2024 bottom 5.

Despite a jaw dropping 9.9 Sam relinquishes his grip on the 😀 after 3 weeks, and hands it over to Justin.

Simon can be grateful to the new boy for avoiding a record 4th ☹️ in a row. Phil jumps straight in and takes it.

Sam's 9.9 is the 2nd highest score for a new album behind only Andy's reverence for The Boss.

Suede sit comfortably in the top half of the classics alongside The The and The Cult.

Matt

Empire of the Sun - Faux exotic, not quite psychedelic, electro warbling that sounded like a series of car adverts. Genuinely dismayed that Rhapsodize didn't name check a tame impala. 5

Jack White - JW doing what JW does and doing fairly well. 7.8

American Aquarium - I don't mind country and I do like indie but together this just didn't gel. Bit like lager and Nutella. 6.5

Rakim - muscular old school rap, featuring a lot of Rakim's famous mates. As often, slower tracks were the weaker ones. 7

Totw - Jack White, What's the Rumpus (track 7)

Suede - Underrated album from an underrated band with some proper crowd pleasers. Occasionally feels of its time but anything with the line 'Lost it to Bostik' get an extra half mark. 8.3

Erol

Empire of the Sun - fair to middling electro pop sounds. Listenable while on a sun lounger but I doubt I’ll go back to it. Rhapsodise sounds like a B side from the Lion King sound track: ‘Simba - behold all the animals in your kingdom!’ 5

Jack White - another cracking serving of innovative rock guitar from Jack the maestro. It’s not quite up there with Fear of the Dawn but it’s still bloomin’ good. 8.7

American Aquarium - I’m quite partial to a bit of country if it’s done well.

But, apart from a few tracks, this was just a bit too dreary and down. The lyric ‘the only thing more terrifying is coming face to face with dying’ put me off. 6

Rakım - this really is 80s/90s old skool rap. None of that modern mumble rap nonsense in sight. Very well done. I’m off to buy a big gold chain. 7.5

TOTW - anything from Jack White.

Suede - the singles are great and the rest is pretty damned good too. 8

Sam

Empire of the Sun: dearie me … must try harder ! Yawnsville… 4

Jack White : at the risk of getting too excited I will say this is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard . He is the master . I’m entering rarely visited territory here with a 9.9

American aquarium: there are a lot of shit band names around at the moment and this is right up there. But I do like country / indie / rock and I liked this . If it was a bit miserable at times : 7

Rakim: more death fixations , but he and his many mates sound good . 6.9

TOTW anything by Jack White , so I’ll go with Terminal arch enemy ending as well .

Suede : what a gorgeous collection of Brit hits . What a pleasure . Nice one . 8.8

Guy (Olympic Medal Reviews)

Empire of the Sun - One or two promised a ‘Time to Pretend’ quality but never fully delivered. It then went well off the boil and ended with utter shite - 4.5

Jack White - You know what you’re getting with a JW album. Perhaps not his best but still excellent guitar based rock - 8 🥇

American Aquarium - I’m not a fan of Country or Western as is well documented and therefore this, though serviceable of irs type, was not my cup of tea - 5 🥉

Rakım - We had the conversation post Phil’s reviews about the importance of tunes. This lacks the big samples and quality musical backdrop that mark out the best but it’s still decent hip hop - 7 🥈

TOTW - Underground, Jack White

Suede - I was never really into Suede to the same extent as others when they were in their pomp but I love them now. This is packed full of tunes. A great listen - 8.8

Simon

Empire of the Sun: another band I don't know but didn't warm to this at all - bland, sub Tame Impala-style tunes and unappealing vocals; at least a couple of tracks are pretty ghastly. 4

Jack White: a powerhouse of an album from JW - less refined than his other solo releases, it's like he's gone back to the White Stripe blueprint, this absolutely fizzes with raucous energy. Thrilling stuff. 8.5

American Aquarium: bog-standard sounding country rock and pretty hard going, tbh - I'm sure they're lovely chaps but I really don't get on with this genre. 4.5

Rakim: bar the weird religious interlude, I quite enjoyed some of this - old school hip hop vibes with some decent lazy beats, and some seriously quick rapping to boot. 6.4

Suede: always been impressed by Suede's output but somehow have never got round to listening to this before - cracking stuff, opens up with a couple of bangers and the quality never really drops from there. 8.4

TotW: Jack White - Archbishop Harold Holmes

Justin

Empire of the Sun - nothing as classic as we are the people but still a high class synth pop album. I like their whole mad visual vibe. 7

Jack White - classic Jack White for fans of hard blues guitar rock and screeching vocals 8

American Aquarium - bit mawkish and slow but I do have a bit of a soft spot for this easy listening country/Americana. 6.5

Rakim - old school rap. Nothing revolutionary but still an enjoyable listen. 6.6

Totw Sign of Se7en - Rankim

Suede - Whilst purists prefer the first two albums I have always loved this album. All quality tracks timeless whilst also really capturing the moment. 8

Jim

Empire of the Sun 4

Starts off acceptable if lightweight disco pop ready for Eurovision, but then wtf happens with about 4 tracks to go?

Jack White 8.5

What a ledge. For me this is the most White Stipes offering he's done, with the extra raw sounds of their debut and De Stijl mixed with a few smooth Raconteurs moments in the middle. If I didn't know better I could imagine Meg on the drums for the first few. Terrific stuff.

American Aquarium 5.5

Didn't mind this. The tunes are OK, but the "hey son, I've got some life tips for you" vibe does wear a bit thin

Rakim 7

Great old school beats, though it didn’t need the sermon in the middle.

TOTW Jack White: Archbishop Harold Holmes

Suede 8.5

I'm with you Guy, was a fan from afar back in the day. This has a handful of absolute worldies, just looses the momentum a little on the last few

Mark

Empire Of The Sun - I thought this was ok at first, totes Aussie in the vein of Confidence Man / Kevin Parker, summery disco pop, but went weird towards the end and started to grate - 5.5

Jack White - oh man, another absolute doozy from Jaques Blanc, how does he do it, takes such a seemingly simple template and turns out such monstrously good stuff on such a regular basis, wowsers - 8.5

American Aquarian - kind of in my wheelhouse a bit, touches of Springsteen / Gaslight Anthem heartland rock about it, but I didn't go a bundle on the vocal - 6

Rakim - delivery as smooth as a cashmere codpiece, the opposite of Marshall's mania from the other week. Early stuff with Eric B is up there in the all round hip hop pantheon, this is pretty decent so many decades into his career but all a little one paced and without any massive highlights - 6.5

TOTW - could have picked so many off the JW album, will plump for Bless Yourself

Phil (A warm welcome to our new reviewer...)

Empire of the Sun 2

I hated this. It was like being trapped in 1982 and being forced to listen to nothing but synth pop. It wasn’t even particularly good synth pop, to my ears. The musical arrangements were perfunctory, the vocals were annoying and I will be happy if I live to end of my life without ever having to listen to anything similar.

Jack White 6

I’ve always had a lot of time for Jack White, as a mover and shaker. He strikes me as one of those musicians who is more interested in making music than making money – and in making things easier and more fun for other musicians, and fans. But when I listen to his music it always feels like there’s something missing, that stops me from going “Wow! This is terrific!” He’s clearly an excellent guitarist and has a great rock voice but I remain unexcited. That said, even I can hear that is a really good album. It just doesn’t move me.

American Aquarium 5

There’s probably a thousand bands in America playing the same sort of rootsy Americana as this bunch. Some are probably worse but I’d bet that a significant number are better. There’s nothing special about them, not the singer, the songs, nor the arrangements. Dullsville, man.

Rakim 4

I’m not fond of rap either though the reasons might be worth discussing. When I listen to a piece of music the first thing I hear is the sound – the melody, the rhythm and arrangement. Then I listen to the vocals, if there are any. But rap doesn’t give you that choice. You have to listen to the words. You can’t ignore them or treat them as background noise. It doesn’t help that such music as there is is very much secondary. So, this just doesn’t do it for me. It may or may not be a good rap album but I am the last person to ask for comment.

Track of the week: Jack White – Terminal archenemy endling

Suede 7

This one I did enjoy. I only really know Suede’s first album and I’ve always supposed that I’d like their others. It did feel, halfway through, as though Brett Anderson was just rewriting Drive-in Saturday over and over, but when I played it a second time I felt able to let him off. He has one of those classic rock voices and the band are just as good at ballads, By the sea as a case in point.