Bitesize album reviews for the gentry!

So, I thought the best way of resurrecting this ol' musical endeavour was by rounding up and doing mini-reviews some of the best albums I've been listening to over the last few months. So without further ado, I'm going to look at 3 of my favourite for 2009 - 'Lungs' by Florence & the Machine, 'Conditions' by the Temper Trap, and Passion Pit's debut slice of disco-rock goodness, 'Manners'. All debuts, and all absolutely fantastic! Right, onward!


Florence + the Machine "Lungs"

What's really left to add that hasn't been said already? This one has been winning accolades left right and centre, and with very good reason! The songwriting is top-notch - an excellent mix of pop, soul and rock with just the smallest touch of disco. Powerful drumming, heavy on the toms, lend a pounding, darkly-manic bend to the fantastically gripping 'Drumming Song' and drive along the lead single of 'Dog Days are Over'. The guitar work is light and low in the mix, while the occasional string line adds an ethereal quality to several numbers, most noticeably 'blinding', where it builds to a beautiful crescendo over the course of the song.

All of this is great, of course, but the real clincher for the album is there in the title - Florence Welch. She is the driving force behind the album, and really turns it from simply a good album into one of the best of the year. Over the course of the running time her voice goes from a soft lullaby ('I'm not Calling You A Liar') to harsh, soaring blues ('Girl With One Eye'), to triumphant gospel (a fantastic cover of 'You've Got The Love') all with equal skill. No doubt about it, the titular 'lungs' of the album belong to her, and they are amazing! That girl can sing.

But outside of her vocal skills, there is a surprisingly mature, and dark, lyrical edge to the songs. Below the soaring melodies lie songs about detachment, loss, bitterness and a general obsession with less pleasant areas of human nature. Nowhere is this more obvious than the beautifully bitchy 'Girl With One Eye', where Florence tells of mutilating a lady because she seduced her man. Here the guitar work is used to wondrous effect - slightly off-kilter Spanish/blues melodies keep the listener off guard and a beautiful string scratch symbolising the knife going in makes me wince even now! And while we're at it, there is the rather excellent 'Kiss With A Fist', which sounds like Jack White if he got up on the wrong side of the bed!

T'be honest I don't really have much bad to say on this album. Some of the bonus tracks get a little bit shaky, and thank you iTunes, I don't need 3 different versions of 'Dog Days', but outside of that, 'tis pretty damn fantastic. Go listen!


The Temper Trap "Conditions"

Sometimes first impressions can be very misleading. I first saw, and heard of, The Temper Trap while tagging along with a friend to the free festivals iTunes were running over the summer. When I listened to them, I wasn't blown away. They were ok, yeah, but not exactly oral sex and cookies. Looking back, I think the blame lies alot on the sound system - the vocals were swampy and the guitar hardly cut through at all. Also they were playing with Mumford and Sons that night, which is a completely mismatched pair if I ever saw one! Anyway, sometime later they started getting some airplay, and I decided to give them a second try, so found myself a copy of 'Conditions' on Spotify and sat back to listen. Next day I bought the album.

Though it may sound weird, the first thing I thought of listening to this album is a song called 'Emotion Sickness' by fellow Aussie grungers Silverchair. If you haven't heard it, go search it out on Youtube - it's a fantastic little tune. It's a slow-burning, emotionally powerful number that takes time to get to the punch, but when it does, it's second to none. Temper Trap's album is similar to this - several of the songs take a long time to get going, but the pay off is worth it. Tunes like Resurrection almost sound like Tool songs, building up layers of drums and heavily reverbed guitars until it all comes crashing down, in the best way possible.

This isn't always a plus point though - several songs (Soldier On being the worst offender) are over-extended to the point of stagnation. But when it works, boy does it ever work well.

As I said, Temper Trap are one of these bands heavily reliant on effects and production. The sound is big - far bigger than the 4 of them sound like they could make, but it works very well given the nature of the songwriting. The lead singer frequently reaches dog-whistle levels of pitch, but it complements perfectly with the riff-based guitar work. The best example of this is probably the intro to lead single 'Sweet Disposition', where his vocals hit the stratosphere!

This album has it's share of faults - the lyrics are often seem as floaty and light and the melodies that contain them, but it is an album bursting with power. Also bonus points must be given to 'Fader', which is possibly one of my favourite songs released all year. Brilliant, simply brilliant.


Passion Pit "Manners"

Finally, we come to Passion Pit. This is a lot pushed onto me by my sister and is a tasty bit of indie electro-pop with a chewy disco centre (to torture a metaphor until it screams). Passion Pit are a bunch of American indie kids who seem to enjoy keyboard synths and distorted vocals far more than is probably legal in most states. 'Manners' is the first major label release for them, drawing together several EP tracks and some new stuff.

While I'd normally separate out the individual elements of the band's sound, that's kinda hard with Passion Pit - all of the instruments blend together into one homogeneous lump. This is very much noise rock - imagine Sigur Ros shot through the heart with adrenaline and E and stuffed through a moog synthesizer until they stopped being all sad and beautiful and started bouncing around like lunatics. They make heavy use of keyboards and all the flexibility that allows - just listen to the harpsichord-style intro to 'Moth's Wings' or the 60s game show syth of 'Little Secrets'. It gives the entire album a very eclectic style, and this is enhanced by the almost child-like vocals. I really can't decide whether I like the singer's voice or not - most times he sounds lovely, but there are times when he wanders into rather worrying territory. One of the worst offenders of this is 'Sleepyhead', where I honestly can't take silly falsetto dootings and distorted melodies seriously at all.

Now it sounds like I'm ripping on the album, but honestly Sleepyhead is the only bad apple in an otherwise very very good crop (bunch? barrel full of? whatever.) Whereas normally I feel the vocals and lyrics stand seperate from the rest of the song, here they are another melody line just as the guitar and keyboards are. I must have listened through this album a dozen times or more, but I couldn't tell you what half the lyrics were. And indeed, if you take the elements individually, they don't add up to much. But put them all together, and you get a syrupy, tasty mess of electro-awesomeness (3rd food metaphor this review. I must be hungry). Songs like the aformentioned 'Little Secrets' just make you want to smile and dance around like a mad thing. And despite the darker tones of many of the lyrics (that which you can make out anyway) the songs nearly all have a wonderfully happy beat to them. This is music made for dancing, and the band clearly has a fantastic time and a real love of performing - because of this, all the little problems of the album are rendered moot by the sheer joy of the 12 tracks that make it up