The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong

For some reason there is something about shoegaze that reminds me of summer. The amorphous melodies, the soft, subdued vocals and the droning wall of sound always somehow always bring with them images of of sunny festivalterrain on the first day of summer and the overall feeling of carelessness that goes with that. Nothing on your mind for those few days but to find out when you'll fit your meals into your packed schedule, as you drift of in a haze of music. And that's exactly what New York-based band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart evokes for me with their second album Belong.

To equate The Pains of Being Pure at Heart to just any shoegaze band, however, would be to sell them short. The band garnered critical acclaim with their self-titled debut album in 2009. In 2011 they return, determined to do even better. 'I like the idea of songs that don't get beyond themselves but catch you and make an impression', singer and guitarist Kip Berman said in an interview on Pitchfork, describing the band's aim for their second album. A smart observation, since nothing can crush good intentions and claims of authenticity and as hard as over-emphasizing the aestetics, and that's one trapdoor TPOBPAH wisely aims to avoid. It's a strategy that pays of wonderfully as the band balances between the sometimes somewhat contrived lyrical compositions of bands like Hurts and fellow-shoegazers The Big Pink on the one side and generic teenrock on the other side. 

What sets TPOBPAH apart is the fact that they manage to incorporate some nuance into their songs, musically as well as lyrically, thus avoiding wandering into the clichés of the genre. TPOBPAH is genuine and in today's pop scene that is fastly becoming a rare characteristic. Instead of overconstructing, the band keeps it simple, with misleadingly plain melodies and soft, sometimes dreamy vocals by Berman and Peggy Wang. No explicit tear-jerking here or  dramatic excesses, just a gang of four trying to connect with their peers, by actually trying to connect with their peers. In this day and age it's something that would almost be considered the pinnacle of naïveté. Or clumsiness even, if you will. But for everyone who has not yet fallen to the creeping march of cynism, Belong can offer a range of things, going from comfort over innocent escapism to even bringing all the good things of summer to you as you close your eyes and drift of, if only for the duration of the record. Or it should at least generate a smile.

Tracklist

1. Belong

2. Heaven's Gonna Happen Now

3. Hearts In Your Heartbreak

4. The Body

5. Anne With An E

6. Even In Dreams

7. My Terrible Friend

8. Girl Of 1,000 Dreams

9. Too Tough

10. Strange

The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

What did you expect from the Vaccines? is the title for British indie rock band The Vaccines' recently released debut album and it's an excellent question as well. And an undeniable statement. It's pretty head on, about as nihilistic as you can get with just a hint of arrogance. In short, it's very rock'n roll, if only on an aestectic level. The cynic in me however, would be tempted to reciprocate that question with low expectations. Because it's easy to assume that The Vaccines would be just another specimen in the seemingly endless line-up of overconfident, self-conceited and interchangeable indie rock combo's. The kind of band that considers itself to be the next best thing, excelling in vague, generic indie sounds, but lacking substantially when it comes down to actually backing up their carefully constructed image with decent songwriting and originality. And from that point of view What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? somewhat worried me, because Lord knows the last thing I was waiting for was yet another disappointingly bland it-band.

Wrongly, as it turns out, as The Vaccines produced a very decent debut. The band throws together a variety of rock influences, ranging from 50's rock over 60's garage rock to punk resulting in a very sharp sound, not groundbreaking, but very aesthetic nontheless. The Vaccines don't dispense any great pieces of wisdom through their songs, nor do they really dig deep, but the songwriting is at least refreshingly honest. The band somehow managed to find a very bareable balance between the kind of overly sentimental love songs bands like Kings Of Leon thrive on on the one hand and completely hollow songs about drinking partying an sex (which for many of today's young indie rock bands is plenty to constitute an album) on the other hand. Of course all in all the songs here still border on banality, but If only a little, The Vaccines distinguish themselves from the pack by how they take on these themes: heartbreak, being young, the whole shebang of what life is like when you're young. And sure, songs like 'A Lack of Understanding' or 'Post Break-Up Sex' hold in them a specific aim at younger audiences, but there's nothing wrong with that. Having said that, this is not one of the albums that will define 2011. For that it is much too casual and much too momentary. And moreover, there is hardly anything new to what The Vaccines bring. But that doesn't change the fact that this album is a breath of fresh air. What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? lasts just over half an hour and that's the way it should be. The songs are fleeting, the themes universal and the overall tone spot-on, maybe not made for eternity, but a flawless snapshot. In that it's a chronicle of youth, nothing more and nothing less. And at this point in their life, that just great.

Tracklist

1. Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)

2. If You Wanna

3. A Lack Of Understanding

4. Blow It Up

5. Wetsuit

6. Nørgaard

7. Post Break-Up Sex

8. Under Your Thumb

9. All In White

10. Wolf Pack

11. Family Friend

Rainbow Arabia - Boys And Diamonds

L.A.-based electronic duo Rainbow Arabia's debut album Boys and Diamonds has been out for a few weeks now, but only now made it to a blogpost. In the previous years the band released two EP's (The Basta and Kabukimono) and toured with bands like Gang Gang Dance, Mogwai and Hecuba setting quite the name for themselves. Boys and Diamonds in part redeems expectations. The band's trademark sound is something called fourth world pop, a mix of modern producing and various styles of music from around the globe, with an emphasis on Africa an Asia. World music, to use one of those terrible container concept. Terrible, because Rainbow Arabia offers more than just a collage of cheap, tropical beats. 

One of their key-words seems to be dosage. The band carefully balances exotic influences with electronic arrangements. Their music is never in-your-face Africa-inspired, but you still instantly can still hear what they're getting at. Their beats are subtle and slick, the African, Indian and Carribean influences are never screaming for attention. And at the same time that's also the issue with this record. Although commendable in its effort to create something authentic, the album rarely touches on the exuberance and feeling of lushness of say an Animal Collective product. In fact, one reason that this review stayed on the shelf for so long is that I had a hard time deciding what I thought of this album. It's never bad, but at the same time it rarely leaves an imprint. And even with the songs being so layered musically and rich in construction and influences, I had the hardest time finding something relevant to say about them. Boys and Diamonds is a pleasant record, but for the most part it contains background music. Good background music, but it's still just too easy to tune out while listening to it.

Tracklist
1. Boys And Diamonds
2. Without You
3. Nothin' Gonna Be Undone
4. Blind
5. Papai
6. Jungle Bear
7. Hai
8. Mechanical
9. This Life Is Practice
10. Sayer
11. Sequenced

Robyn live @ Ancienne Belgique (10/03)

Robin Miriam Carlsson, perhaps better known as just Robyn, has steadily earned herself a place at the top of the pop firmament over the past seventeen (17!) years. Last year she released the amazing Body Talk series, including two mini-albums and a compilation. And last Thursday she performed in the Ancienne Belgique, proving once again that she is one of the top performers in the business.

She definately didn't miss her entrance. Four men in white entered the stage and manned their intruments (synth, drum, drum, synth) while a voice started introducing Konichiwa headquarters' 'pint-sized atombomb'  (a reference to the intro of her 2005 album Robyn). The lights started flashing , the keys started to build up and under an earsplitting haze of light and sound, Robyn jumped on stage, ready take the audience with her on an electropop roller coaster. Because if anything, she was determined to get everybody in motion. Dancefloor gems like 'Be Mine', 'Indestructible' and 'Fembot' were fired of at a furious pace, while Robyn flew across the stage, jumping and spinning around franticly. But, without ever sacrificing any of her vocal quality. Where Hurts threw a dozen roses into the crowd during their gig one week earlier, Robyn shared the peel of the banana she ate after that first round of adrenaline-pop. Not that there was much time to catch our breath.

By the time she pulled out 'Dancing On My Own' (suprisingly early), she had the whole crowd with her. It was only one of many memorable moments during the show, as Robyn disposes of a wide range of simply irresistible sing-and-dance-along pop songs, which effortlessly surpass the pop-uniformity we get jammed down our throates on a daily basis. There was not a dull moment during the whole set, and Robyn seemed unexhaustible the way she kept bursting with energy the whole time. And that energy inevitably reflected on the audience, which yelled along on indestructible tracks like 'Stars 4-Ever', 'Time Machine' and 'Love Kills'. Her Royksopp duet 'The Girl and the Robot' couldn't be left out of course and Snoop Dogg collaboration 'You Should Better' was saved for the end, in a refreshing, slowed-down version.

All of that left us wanting more, so Robyn returned for a first round of encores in which she played 'Hang With Me', the incredibly chilled 'Dancehall Queen' and her breakthrough hit 'With Every Heartbeat'. Subsequently she left the stage again and was yelled back on stage for another round. And for those who figured it was too late to dance, she pulled out an exhaulted version of 'Konichiwa Bitches' out of her hat. And with an accoustic 'Show Me Love' she concluded. With a staggering 90-minute performance Robyn established herself once again as one of the greatest pop stars of the decade. When your feet, your hands and your throat are soar afterwards, you know you've gotten your money's worth.

Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday

Tagline: 'Long as you know / long as you know / long as you mothafucka know / I'm the b b b b b b best'

Nicki Minaj is without a single doubt one of the most ambitious new-comers of the past years. And whether it was for her her musical stylings, her extravant image or some controversial day-time television appearance (naughty Regis, you can look but you can't touch - and you certainly can't make allusions to having sex with her) Minaj - Part Barbie-doll, part rapper, has definately been the talk of the town for a while now.  Now technically her debut album Pink Friday was released November 19 of last year, almost two months before this blog even came into existence. So, that being the case, I'm considering it an excellent opportunity for my first official retrospective for one of the most anticipated albums lately.

Minaj worked her way up through countless features for other artists garnering not only attention but also ciritical acclaim. She single-handedly saved Diddy-Dirty Money's ('Hello, Good Morning') or Christina Aguilera ('Woohoo') from total mediocrity. She excelled on Kanye West's 'Monster' displaying not one, but two equally fierce personalities. Alas, despite the promising signs, her solo debut Pink Friday ended up being a fairly watered down decoction of the fiercely roaring Nicki Minaj we (certainly I) had come to love over the past year. The album takes of on the right foot though. After all, opener 'I'm The Best' contains a clear shout-out to the world: it wasn't easy, but I'm here, I'm the best and I'm not leaving. The songs might lack a bit in execution (is that Lil' Wayne's touch?) but epitomizes what Minaj is all about: 'I'm the best bitch doing it'. Track two 'Roman's Revenge' is so tensed, so raw and so angry it's almost scary - and granted, that is in part due to Eminem, who shows that he still can. With 'Did It On 'Em' Pink Friday reaches its peak. This is the Nicki Minaj that should have had a more prominent role on the album: spewing profanity à la Lil' Kim and more fierce than Tyra motha-fuckin' Banks.

After that however, most of the good intentions go down the drain and make place for a few crowd-pleasing pop tracks. 'Right Thru Me' is about as safe as an R&B song can get and neither Rihanna-song 'Fly', nor 'Save Me' can avoid lyrical and musical mediocrity. After all, selling records is also a reality, even for the best bitches. And alongside many other things, Nicki Minaj is also the artist that staged a hectic arrival where she was swarmed by fans at Heathrow airport in order to boost sales in the UK (her entourage leaked the information about her arrival to make sure that it wouldn't go unnoticed). After those three songs 'Moment 4 Life' (with Drake) and 'Blazin'' (with Kanye West) bring some solace, but the tone has been set by now. And about halfway the record reaches an absolute low, with thanks to Will.i.am, a man whose musical musical creativity shriveled up and died many years ago, as he extensively proved on the past two Black Eyed Peas albums. The result is the mindblowingly comatose 'Check It Out', a veritable abomination built around an obscenely gratuitous Buggles-sample. Commercially successful, it has to be one of the stupidest, most useless musical conceptions in recent history. If Will.i.am has even an ounce of inspiration left in him, he is definately hiding it well. First single 'Your Love' and Natasha Bedingfield duet 'Last Chance' (really, Natasha fucking Bedingfield?) make for a pretty numb conclusion to a pretty safe album.

Pink Friday is - in one word - a let-down. Not because it is a bad album per se, because it's not. But because it stays far below expectations, stearing clear from most anything that could be considered to be too off-centre to appeal to the broad, mainstream crowd it is so obviously intended for. Which kind of brings me back to the opening track of the album. As a whole this album is not all that it could be. The general idea is in there somewhere, and the talent is there as well, but the execution is all too often lacking and once too often the safe road is chosen over an edgier alternative. Just like 'I'm The best' says one thing lyrically, with the music simulaneously screaming the opposite. Still two stars for Pink Friday, for its - sadly too few - great moments and mainly for Nicki Minaj herself, who - even when she's not in ful throttle - sets herself apart from all the others through her personality, flow and lyrics (she can write). Two stars: not nearly enough to cover her full potential, but perhaps already a bit generous for what she  ultimately put on the table.

Tracklist
1. I'm The Best
2. Roman's Revenge (ft. Eminem)
3. Did It On 'Em
4. Right Thru Me
5. Fly (ft. Rihanna)
6. Save Me
7. Moment 4 Life (ft. Drake)
8. Check It Out (ft. Will.i.am)
9. Blazin (ft. Kanye West)
10. Here I Am
11. Dear Old Nicki
12. Your Love
13. Last Chance (ft. Natasha Bedingfield)

Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise

At only 19 years old Nicolas Jaar is already considered to be one of the rising stars of the electronica-univers and with good reason. Born in New York, Jaar relocated to Chile at a young age only to return to his home town a couple of years ago. Making music since he was 14 years old he is now plating up his first - and highly anticipated - LP, and all of this while attending Brown University. Faut-le-faire. The common thread throughout his debut album is his search to creating an organic whole. As if the whole thing just came together. Effortlessly, random, by chance almost. And water playes a leading role in that concept.

Eery opener 'Etre' immediatly sets the mood with the sound of waves softly washing ashore. The actual song consists of not much more than a collage-like combination of spoken word soundbits, melancholic piano melodies and recordings of all sorts of undefined noise. It feels vintage, almost old-fashioned even, like a polaroid picture. 'Colombs' follows that trend of minimalism, introducing vocals - in French - into the piece. Maybe the not most accessible opening due in terms of sing-along-quality, but no less intruiging for that reason. At times the album feels more like a mixtape than a longplayer in that it has a certain cut-and-paste structure. Like a high-quality homemade craft project. Sometimes a bit difficult to enter as well, but never overly stilted. And bursting with influences and musical styles. Track number four 'Too Many Kids Finding Rain In The Dust' makes for a first full-blown song, drawing influences from Eastern genres. 'Keep Me There', with it's melodic humming and minimal electronic coating genre, combines electro with elements of tango reminding of Gotan Project. Towards the end he blends in some saxophone tunes. Random, yet seemlessly. And how could this album be complete without one extremely recognisable sample. In casu, Ray Charles' 'I Got A Woman' on 'I Got A'. For some reason, there's something undeniably French about it. Maybe because of the multitude of 'Old World' influences, maybe because of its smooth feel or maybe just because of the soundbits in French (even I am not immune to subliminal messaging). Either way, the intricate concept in combination with the meticulous, stylized exection reveal that Nicolas Jaar has much more up his sleave. You wouldn't expect any less from an Ivy League man.

In the end you should probably just let his music speak for itself. After all, as his last.fm profile stated, 'he'd prefer you to simply listen to his music instead of reading this'. Far be it from me to argue with that.

Tracklist
1. Etre
2. Colomb
3. Sunflower
4. Too Many Kids Finding Rain In The Dust
5. Keep Me There
6. I Got A
7. Problems With The Sun
8. Space Is Only Noise If You Can See It
9. Almost Fell
10. Balance Her In Between Your Eyes
11. Specters Of The Future
12. Trace
13. Variations
14. tre

Jessie J - Who Are You?

She is the sound of 2011 according to the BBC's annual poll. The release of her debut album Who Are You? was brought forward due to popular demand. And in addition to that she won the prestigious 'Critic's Choice Award' at this years BRIT Awards, stepping in the footsteps of Florence Welch (2009) and Ellie Goulding (2010). And yet it's easy to cherish low expectations towards Jessica Cornish - aka Jessie J. And that is not altogether justified. Because granting that it's usually the more chart-friendly artists who prevail in these hype lists over their more alternative counterparts, those 'mainstreamers' - among whom Little Boots, Adele and Duffy - have still proven themselves more interesting than your average Britney, Miley or Katy. And Jessie J is certainly not just another faceless pop starlet with a pretty face and a record deal.

Having said that, this debut didn't turn out to be the punch in the stomach first single 'Do It Like A Dude' led to believe. It is however, a pretty okay pop album, no triumph, but definately containing a few strong moments. The opening duo 'Price Tag'/'Nobody's Perfect' for starters. 'Price Tag' (ft. B.o.B.) is unpretentious, optimistic and sunny, in short the perfect pop song. 'We Just wanna make the world dance, forget about the price tag', Cornish sings in a haze of happiness. If there is a song out there at this moment that better captures the evergrowing longing for summer, I have yet to hear it. It's followed by 'Nobody's Perfect', in which the singer curses her own big mouth. It's not as if we haven't already heard a gazillion similar songs about feeling sorry about hurting a friend, but for some reason this one does the trick. And could you resist the insanely catchy, pompous-in-a-good-way warrior song 'Do It Like A Dude'? By the way, Jessie J has a better voice then you would maybe give her credit for. That is, better than you might expect, but perhaps not quite as good as she herself seems to think, judging from the somewhat all over the place vocals acrobatics on tracks like 'Big White Room'. Sometimes less is more. 

Besides a few genuinely promising track Who Are You? also contains a handful of middle-of-the-road pop/R&B songs. All too often however Cornish lapses into lyrical clichés, the reason for which may lie in background as a co-writer (she co-wrote 'Party In The USA' for Miley Cyrus among other work). Cornish garnered attention by co-writing songs for other artists and legend has it that 'Do It Like A Dude' was originally  intended for Rihanna. When that didn't work out she would have decided to use it for herself. It's a niche that works out fine for her, as she proves through tracks like 'LOVE', which take their strength from the fact that they at least feel personal as opposed to a song she's write for someone else. But it sometimes results in a fairly recognisable sound with strong references to the kind of artists she used to write for. 1990's R&B track 'Abracadabra' holds suspicious resemblance to Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dreams' in the chorus. 'Rainbow' even feels a bit weak to be a Beyoncé song while 'Mamma Knows Best' sounds like a mash-up of plan B (with whom she toured) and Gwen Stefani's 'The Sweet Escape'.

Is there then nothing that sets her apart from the crowd? Sure there is. The fact that she at least writes her own material and the fact that she's more than a one-dimensional cardboard cut-out of a singer makes even the weakest songs at least bearable. And at the same time no, there isn't. Who Are You rarely runs truly deep and at this point in her career, maybe that isn't her number one musical priority. Chances are that Cornish won't be remembered for this debut. Hell, chance are she won't be remembered at all. Time will tell whether or not she'll really set herself apart from the pop mainstream. The potential is definately there, but right now it seems she's still not willing to step outside of her comfort zone. But in the meantime she has nonetheless produced a fairly enjoyable album for the summer.

Tracklist

1. Price Tag (ft. B.o.B.)

2. Nobody's Perfect

3. Abracadabra

4. Big White Room (live)

5. Casualty of Love

6. Rainbow

7. Who's Laughing Now

8. Do It Like a Dude

9. Mamma Knows Best

10. L.OV.E.

11. Stand Up

12. I Need This

13. Who Are You
Bonus tracks
14. Price Tag (accoustic version)
15. Do It Like A Dude (accoustic version)
16. Who Are You (live accoustic version)
17. Price Tag (ft. B.o.B.; music video)
18. Do It Like A Dude (music video)

Hurts live @ Ancienne Belgique

Harvey Quinnt

Clare Maguire was supposed to support Hurts in Brussels, but circumstances forced her to cancell a few weeks prior to the concert. Antwerp-based band Harvey Quinnt substituted for her and quite frankly, it didn't work for me. And that's not them, it's me. Although in a way it was them. In the way that they are simply not Clare Maguire. Brave effort though.

Hurts

Fishing in the same new-wave pond many consider to have been emptied by bands like Editors, Manchester-based band Hurts received mostly mixed reviews for their 2010 debut Happiness. But while musical taste will always be debatable and taking in account that the band consistently walks the fine line between heartfelt and overly pathetic, few could deny that singer Theo Hutchcraft and synth player Adam Anderson dispose of a perfectly stylized act and an arsenal of well-crafted songs. The question that remained to be answered then, was whether their flawlessly constructed concept and enigmatic presence would resound in front of a live audience. Because even the best construction will flatline when there's no connection.

The show began with an impressive audiovisual intro, during which the band formally entered the stage, opening with 'Unspoken'. Hutchcraft's twitching hand gestures looked somewhat exagerated, but other than that his vocals were up to standards. After that Hurts pulled out the big guns with album opener 'Silver Lining' and 'Wonderful Life', their biggest hit to date. 'Evelyn' and 'Sunday' marked the loud moment in the set, expressed by Hutchcraft dramatically wielding his microphone stand around. All impressively streamlined and of course that slightly killed off the spontaneity of the show. Not a single unneeded word, every outburst feeling a bit rehearsed. Sometimes Hurts got a bit lost in their self-imposed theatrics, with the bouquet of white roses thrown into the audience one rose at a time as somewhat of a pinnacle. One of the highlights of the show was nonetheless their Kylie duet 'Devotion', followed by their own cover version of Minogue's 'Confide In Me', a more subdued pair of songs. It was at these moments that you could spot the sincerity behind the orchestration. After the swelling duo 'Stay' and 'Illuminated' the lead duo left the stage, as there band stayed on, remaining there frozen until Hutchcraft and Anderson deemed it time to return (and they took their sweet time) for one encore: 'Better Than Love'. End of a flawlessly executed set without a single weak moment. Nothing unexpected either, but quality-wise there was not much to be critisized.

The main default was maybe the interaction with the audience (or the lack of it), which throughout the concert rarely surpassed a modest 'thanks very much' from Hutchcraft. Meanwhile Anderson ceremoniously accompanied him behind his piano with the air of a classical composer. Seriously, you have enigmatic and then you have enigmatic for the sake of being enigmatic. And at times it felt as if appearance was more important than connecting with the audience. That could mean two things. One, that Hurts is a pair of pretentious snobs, whose heavily new-wave inspired, almost sacral concept doesn't allow for interaction. Or, it could be growing pains that will eventually wear off as they evolve, letting loose a little their rigid and sometimes slightly pompous gestures. Their show lead on to believe that it's most likely to be the second option.