We’ve hit a new milestone - if you add the classics to the new, we have hit 1000 reviews! 👏👏.
Shame the week didn’t quite live up to the moment.
Decidedly average overall with Deadletter taking the plaudits, but they only just squeeze into our top half.
Floating Points have our TOTW.
Big news though in that Phil has his first 😀 . 🎉.
Andy has the ☹️ with his lowest set of scores for over a year. Only Phil, in his first week, has been less happy in 2024.
Def Leppard have eclectic neighbours in Felix Da Housecat and The Beach Boys on the bottom half of the classics.
Sam’s 10 for DL is his 5th perfect score, the other 4 classics being Prince, Radiohead, Faith No More and Primal Scream.
Guy
Deadletter – this is an interesting blend of styles. It has its fair share of dark and moody numbers but also plenty of more upbeat tunes. Nice social commentary on the lyrics too. This feels like a more sophisticated post-punk band and the sax really lifts things – harking to Madness in places. A good debut effort – 7.5
Floating Points – plinks and plonks in no particular order with a drum machine playing uninspiring beats doesn’t do it for me. One or two tracks were a bit more tuneful but overall this was weak and went on far too long – 4.5
Lunar Vacation – well constructed songs with ethereal vocals. All very tuneful but just far too slow and unenergetic for me to score any higher. Last track’s a good one though with touches of Wolf Alice in the middle section – 6.5
Mermaid Chunky – madder than a box of frogs. This is the most bizarre album - starting with the Gaelic-themed recorder solo at the start and continuing with some of the weirdest lyrics I’ve heard. That said, I found it quite entertaining and actually decent in places. There are some great dance beats at times (Chaperone is a tune). I can see why James Murphy signed them tbf – 6.7
Def Leppard – Listening to this felt like I was attending an hour long showing of Rock of Ages. That said, it was pretty easy to listen to versus some of the screamy nu-metal we’ve had recently and had a nostalgic heavy rock-air to it – 7.5
TOTW – Hysterical Strength by Deadletter
Andy
Deadletter - All a bit moody and that incessant sax drone didn't work for me, all went a bit BCNR 5
Floating Points - I'm sure this is very proficient if you like this sort of thing but I found it totally uninteresting, at least until the drum outro on Affleck's Palace. But then he followed that up with another rendition of a man trapped in a pipe 2.5
Lunar Vacation - Not too shabby this, a bit boygenius adjacent at times while never reaching such heights 6
Mermaid Chunky - You can't accuse them of not being interesting! Crazy stuff that became listenable but I'm not sure I'd listen to it again. Got to admire their commitment to geography mind 4
TotW - Bitter by Lunar Vacation
Def Leppard - I do love this album despite it being overproduced and having many pointless interludes in songs (Dogs of War could be about half the length it is) But any album with Pour Some Sugar On Me can't get less than 9
Annette
Deadletter: 7
Floating Points: 5
Lunar Vacation: 6
Mermaid Chunky: 4
TOTW: Mere Mortal - Deadletter
Phil
Deadletter
Strong echoes of the Murder Capital, especially on the vocals. Maybe though, they could do with some of the Dubliners’ gloom to beef up their sound. The nagging sax is about the only distinctive element in the rather perfunctory arrangements. The title track and Auntie Christ are by some distance the best numbers here. 6.5
Floating Points
When the rhythm track is allowed to dominate, this album is a dull listen but when FP goes for different textures, like the Japanese-influenced opening to Ocotillo, it can be entrancing. There are enough such moments to make this an album I’d listen to again but most of the tracks do sound destined for club playlists. 6
Lunar Vacation
Gotta be honest, I thought I was in for a classic after the opening track. The album drops into Just OK territory from that point on. Still a very decent indie pop record but it would have been a lot better if they’d let the guitars have a bigger say in proceedings. 7
Mermaid Chunky
An object lesson in how to make great entertainment with just a keyboard, sax, recorder and a wicked sense of humour. Every track here is meticulously built up from samples – a vocal refrain here, a recorder on loop there, a soupcon of sax, handclaps and a keyboard set to “squelch”, but they all have their own unique signature.
I love the fact that James Murphy signed them to his label on the basis of Chaperone, the most commercial track here, but was apparently totally unfazed by the weirdness elsewhere on this album. If I have a criticism it’s that they don’t foreground the vocals enough – tiny gymnast and medieval (entirely built from vocal samples) have hilarious lyrics.
There are enough catchy arrangements here to suggest that Mermaid Chunky are likely to become stars – after all, if Wet Leg can do it, they can too – but I hope they don’t lose the overall sense of daftness that is a constant thread throughout this record.
I loved it! 8
TOTW – Mermaid Chunky - tiny gymnast
Classic
Def Leppard – Hysteria 5
One of my beefs about most rock and pop is that it’s over-produced. From what I understand, it was Def Leppard’s intention with this album to make a polished album full of bangers – every track a potential hit! It appears that they succeeded but I would rather the album had been produced by Neil Young. For me to enjoy it, it would have needed to be raw and scruffy. There were a few tracks I quite enjoyed – Don’t shoot shot gun, the title track, Women – but the overall effect was a bit like eating a huge bar of chocolate and feeling sick afterwards.
Sorry, Sam!
Simon
Deadletter: touch heavy on the sax for my liking - although it is a point of difference with their contemporaries - but otherwise I enjoyed it, Credit to Treason and Deux Ex Machina in particular have a robust urgency to them and there's plenty to like elsewhere as well. 7.5
Floating Points: first half is a tour de force of muscular, shape-shifting techno aimed squarely at the dance floor and which never takes its foot off the gas - back end is more expansive and less club-orientated (reminded me of Aphex Twin) but no less effective for it. Tremendous. 8
Lunar Vacation: solid enough without ever reaching the heights, the best tracks are the ones where they delve into Slowdive territory; the rest are a bit too lightweight to leave much of an impression. 6.5
Mermaid Chunky: Justin, where did you come across this? The fact that last year they hosted the South West's largest ever dog wedding (see Spotify) tells you everything you need to know - beyond bonkers. 4
Def Leppard: Erol, I assume this is from your 'denim jacket with patches' period... I remember being distinctly unimpressed by this lot when this originally came out and they certainly haven't improved with age - ho hum. 4
TotW: Floating Points - Fast Forward
Jim
Deadletter 7
I enjoy the trend of angsty talking over pure singing, and the driving base guitar rhythms are really good. But whilst I’m partial to a bit of sax it became a distraction, taking this away from 8 territory.
Floating Points 7.5
A decent range of genres , the deep techno offerings were the stand out tracks and you could imagine Carl Cox banging them out at Space, with some tasty acid squelches thrown in here. Lost its momentum at a couple of points.
Lunar Vacation 5.5
I think I will use this as my bang average yardstick from now on. Thought it might be an another quality Dutch indie-pop style offering after the opener, but it failed to materialise
Mermaid Chunky 4.5
Well that was something. At various points I was reminded of Art Of Noise , 2001 A Space Odyssey and Luke’s year 5 school concert. Had occasional moments of character as it played out.
TOTW Floating Points - Birth4000. Bosh
Def Leppard 7
Didn’t listen to a lot of hair band glam rock in my teens, however I was always fond of this and fascinated by the drummers skills . Animal and ..Sugar still sound great, the rest not so much.
Justin
Deadletter - I just found this a bit dreary despite the sax. 6.1
Floating Points - admittedly a few bits of knob fiddling, but otherwise soem quality dance floor tunes and electronica 7.5
Lunar Vacation - ethereal vocals but nothing grabbed me. 6
Mermaid Chunky - unlikely to be accused of plagiarism! Definitely inventive. Sometimes veers towards playschool, but gladden I listened. Chaperone and Tiny Gymnast potential TOTW 6.8
TOTW Floating Points - Fast Forward
Def Leppard - in my heady days working on the tills in Waitrose someone lent me a copy of this album which I listened to and I thought it was the worst album ever and never listened to them again. I was expecting to give this a 3 but several decades later I can see that it is not totally without merit 6
Sam
Deadletter : this year’s Yard Act . Didn’t sound like Madness to me ! Decent angsty stuff . 7
Floating Points : funny mixture of banging dance music and amateur hour nonsense. 6
Lunar Vacation: I liked this . Solid indie for the most part . 7
Mermaid Chunky : god knows who produced this madness but some of it was funky as fuck (chaperone) and some was insane in the membrane . 7
TOTW : Chaperone by Mermaid Chunky .
Def Leppard: pure rock gorgeousness . I could weep . Absolutely perfect in every way. 20 million sold . If I could give more than 10 …
Erol
Deadletter – this improved as it went along. A new wave punk vibe infused with an edgy scar style. There’s a lot of saxophone going on but that adds nicely to the overall two-tone feel. The narrative based no-nonsense vocals worked well. It definitely has an air of the Murder Capital too. 7.5
Floating Points - a thin slice rather than a slab of electronica. It bobs along steadily and it’s decent enough but it’s rather weedy and lacks any punch. I was waiting for a big key change or hands in the air moment but it never arrived. I would be heading for the bar if I heard this in a club. 5.7
Lunar Vacation - a pleasantly dreamy, floaty set with shades of the Sundays. It’s all a bit one dimensional though, with next-to-no high points to speak of. 5.5
Mermaid Chunky - disjointed musical gibberish. This was painful. 2
TOTW - It Flies by Deadletter
Def Leppard - an exemplar of the big hair, tight trousers rock genre that’s jammed packed full of anthemic hits. It’s over-produced to the gills but as commercial rock albums go, this is (almost) all killer and no filler. Super stuff. 9
Mark
Deadletter - lyrically and musically not on a par with the likes of Idles, Yard Act, FDC et al, and comparisons with Murder Capital aren't likely to endear me to them either. Not terrible, but not the saviours of indie guitar music either - 6
Floating Points - well I really liked this, one of the best dance/electronic albums we've had in recent years. Inventive, percussive, with loads of nice squelching burbling undercurrents, only criticism is that if anything it's a bit brief, some tracks could have done with extending and had weird editing where there just seemed to stop and start again. Anyway, loved it - 8
Lunar Vacation - plenty of potential in this, lots of nice Wolf Alice / Phoebe Bridgers atmospherics and a pretty consistently strong set of tunes, better than average indie I'd say - 7
Mermaid Chunky - Opening with a three minute freeform recorder workout really sets the tone for this crazeballs ensemble. Chaperone is a nice chunky chugger, and there's elements of Psychic TV in here, but overall it's an unusual listen to put it mildly - 4.5
TOTW - Birth 4000 by Floating Points
Matt
Deadletter - unremarkable, with a pub rock feel for which I did not care. 5
Floating Points - pared back electronic soundscape reminiscent of Caribou (no bad thing) but dipped occasionally at points where it washed over you. 7.3
Lunar Vacation - too twee and slight to really stand out. 5.6
Mermaid Chunky - definitely different, so that's to admired. A bit hit and miss but Chaperone and Tiny Gymnast deserve mentions. 7
Totw Fast Forward, Floating Points
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