Sunday CD Project

Delays – Star Tiger Star Ariel

An indie 'dream-pop' band that hail, I recently discovered, from Southampton. One member is actually cousins with a guy at my church. Small world, considering I discovered this band through a friend who is Irish and lives in London. Anyway, onto music!

The opening is rather lovely, centring over a slightly haunting keyboard part, and to me seemed like a bit of a trip away from their earlier indie rock ventures (listen to 2006's You See Colours), but the following tracks move back to more familiar territory for Delays fans.

Some of the songs are a little samey on this album, but that's not to say they aren't good. The music is obscure, but not so intense or dissonant that you couldn't put it on in a public setting with people who don't listen to indie music. A good word to describe it, I think, would be 'friendly'. Yes. I'm going to stick to that.

As always, give it a listen, make your own judgements!

j.r.

Sunday CD Project

I swear I have no memory at the moment: it's Sunday! I should be reviewing! Fool!

Fink – Sort Of Revolution

This was one of those occasional impulse-buys at the record shop in Guildford. I first heard of Fink through artist radio on Spotify, with his song 'Blueberry Pancakes', a sort of dark, lo-fi, acoustic-guitar driven glitch number that I immediately liked. I didn't give much of his other stuff a listen, but remembered the name.

And so I stumbled upon this CD and picked it up. The sound is very similar to what I described above. More towards the folk end of the spectrum, but with little delay loops and things that wave a salute in the direction of Massive Attack and the like. Very enjoyable.

Songs to check out: the title track, 'Sort Of Revolution', which sets the melancholy benchmark for the album, 'Q & A', a partially-a'capella doo-wop tune, and 'Blueberry Pancakes' (not on this album, but very good, as I said above).

Sorry it's so late; someone remind me next week!

j.r.

Stolen

One of the regular topics on this blog used to be human trafficking, something I feel very strongly about. But of late, I haven't felt that burning, passionate anger about it that I did a few months ago. However, that hasn't stopped me from keeping in the loop as regards anti-trafficking news (usually via the fantastic people at Stop The Traffik).

One of the latest developments in raising awareness of human trafficking was the one-off BBC One drama Stolen, which aired on Sunday night. It's extremely encouraging to see mainstream companies putting substantial funding into a production such as this one, and I think it has paid off. Twitter was buzzing during (and just after) the broadcast, and I was spammed by three charities off the back of using the #Stolen hashtag. Slightly irritating, but a good strategy nonetheless.

If you didn't see it on Sunday, and are in the UK, it is still available on BBC iPlayer until this coming Sunday, so you've still got a few more days to go and watch it. What are you waiting for?

Edit: Here's a teaser trailer that the BBC kindly allow you to embed [spoiler alert!]:

j.r.

Sunday CD Project

Not being at uni (and therefore being totally out of routine) caused me to forget all about the fact that it is in fact Sunday today. Actually it ended 19 minutes ago. But hush.

The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?

They pose a good question. Actually, no, they pose an utterly ridiculous question. But an amusing one nonetheless. This was an impulse-bought album, so I had neutral hopes for it, and as it happens, it is a good record. It's not all that new now (I believe it came out in 2004), so I can't give it a rating in terms of recent albums. But perhaps that's a good thing, what with Bon Iver, Battles and Thomas Tantrum's latest efforts.

Not a wholly accessible band, The Unicorns are of the Pavement school of indie rock (although not as intense). There's a peculiar recorder solo and some quirky sound check-type intros, and the lyrical content ranges from mundanity to utter lunacy. However/Therefore (depending on your viewpoint), it's a fun album. I'd give it a listen if you get the chance.

j.r.