I prefer Hot Chip when they’re mellow. A great deal of their music, particularly their earlier work, has a sharpness, an angularity; it suits plenty of songs (I can’t imagine “Over and Over” working as a ‘softer’ song) but my favourite Hot Chip songs tend to have a warm sentimentality to them. Their sound over…
Japandroids’ music feels like the embodient of velocity. Each song has a forward momentum, the feeling of the wind rushing by (it’s dangerous driving music). Their songs are about having fun, the possibilities of youth, but there’s also a distinct pang of regret beneath the dynamic façade. The Japandroids aren’t racing to anything; they’re racing…
This is not the kind of song I like. I have a problem with the contrived singing voice that Lisa Mitchell, like many other singers nowadays, adopts. It reminds me of that silly baby voice that people put on around young children, a vocal style that would sound ridiculous if used in everyday conversation. And…
“It’s extremely personal. When I wrote the things that I’m singing, I didn’t expect anyone to hear it, or know it, or say it.” – Megan James1 When discussing music, the word “intimate” is generally reserved for the discussion of gentle, crowded-sounding music. Acoustic guitars accompanied by fragile singing, that sort of thing. But an…
There’s something to be said for nostalgia, especially when it comes to music. It’s no accident that whenever people put together a “best music of all time” the list tends to skew very heavily to the music that was coming out in their late teens and early twenties; the time when they were singing along…
Frank Ocean’s channelORANGE seems to have topped nearly every “best albums of the year poll” I can think of, and it’s not undeserved. The album is futuristic and retro together, the personal vision of a thoroughly talented individual. It’s also not really my thing: R&B is just not a genre that does a whole lot…
Velociraptor sound great on record but really need to be experienced live. They’re apparently a twelve-piece, but at The Rev ten players (including both members of DZ Deathrays) took to the stage. They all performed with a rambunctious, infectious energy, swapping instruments roles regularly, everyone singing along (whether there was a microphone in front of…
“Archangel” is unquestionably the peak of Burial’s sophomore dubstep album Untrue. The track is a haphazard dirge, with a shuddering, jolting baseline under clipped vocals and melancholic instrumentation. It’s glass breaking gently underwater; it’s simultaneously sad but optimistic, heartfelt but detached. It’s a personal vision which makes it a particular challenge to cover, but Chet…
Once again I seem to have picked the wrong horse in Triple J’s Hottest 100: it seems inevitable that “Oblivion” is going to outperform “Genesis” by a significant margin, which is a shame as the latter is by far more interesting. “Genesis” feels unique; though it’s clearly the sum of familiar parts – a meandering,…
I recently saw someone complaining on Twitter about the use of “cerebral” as a polite way of dismissing music. I don’t agree with the complaint; for me, “cerebral” music is a good thing, music that requires effort to engage and understand, music that is challenging, rewarding and interesting. So “cerebral” isn’t at all synonymous with…
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