Sunday CD Project

Well, would you look at that! It's today already.

Admiral Fallow – Boots Met My Face

I haven't actually given this album a proper end-to-end listen yet, but it has been serving as background music in our living room in the past week or two, and it is rather lovely. It has a very folk-orientated feel – lots of clarinets and things of a Sufjan Stevens nature – but isn't over-busy or too complex to make it sit nicely in a social situation.

It's well-produced, there are nice vocal harmonies, and the songs are well-written. I can't really give any more indication as the album as a whole, but maybe you should go and find out for yourself . . . !

j.r.

Sunday CD: 2nd October 2011

It's Sunday, and we're going for a blast from the past!

At The Drive-In – Relationship Of Command

It's amazing how much CDs cost; I theorise that the better the music, the more expensive the price tag in HMV. Luckily, I stumbled across this in one of Guildford's indie stores, so it was a bargain at £4.

At The Drive-In, if you're not familiar with their work, were the post-hardcore predecessors to and neo-prog giants The Mars Volta, with guitarist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and vocalist Omar Rodríguez-López retaining their roles after the split. Not that you'd know that the vocalist was the same person! López's vocals in ATDI remain unrefined and cutting, giving the band a raw kick that TMV (although still excellent) have never had.

Nearly every track is a corker in my opinion, but I'll recommend Arcarsenal, Pattern Against User and Enfilade as my high-points on the record.

j.r

Sunday CD Project

Hey everyone! Hasn't it been a while!? I hope you all had good summers filled with music and gaiety. Now to business:

Matt Redman – 10,000 Reasons

Matt Redman has released innumerable albums over the years, some of them haven't been all that great to be honest (he's even admitted it himself). However, this latest offering, following on from 2009's back-on-the-up We Shall Not Be Shaken, is nothing short of superb.

The opener, 'We Are The Free', conforms to the recent trend of woah-oh-ohs in Christian worship, but at the same time is a well-written and arranged worship song (and pop song as well!). 'Here For You' is something of an anthem, especially as it was played at various summer festivals by a number of people.

The high point for me, though – partly due to its subtle usage of the mandolin (my current favourite instrument), but mostly due to its utterly beautiful lyrics – is the title track '10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)'. Singing it at Momentum and since has brought me close to tears numerous times.

I apologise that that wasn't a review as much as a vague account of parts of the summer. But anyway, if you have poor opinions of Redman's old material, I recommend giving him a second chance with this album.

j.r.

Changes ahead. Or afoot.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that I have recently (yesterday as I write this) set up a tumblr account. I have nothing against Blogger per se, but the interface and dynamic that tumblr has lends itself more to what I want to achieve from a blog, so it seemed a logical step to take.

Have no fear: posts will continue on here for a little while. Sunday CD Project won't be moving; indeed, if it goes anywhere, it'll be a hiatus (basically depending on my financial situation, what with rent and things).

But yes, this is just a forewarning that come the end of the summer, this blog will be phased out (with the exception of SCDP) and move to tumblr.

The new address is http://juleztalks.tumblr.com but is subject to change if I think of anything more imaginative.

j.r.

Sunday CD Project

As you may have noticed, Sunday CD Project is sort of on holiday at the moment, due to my also being on holiday, and a few other more important things I feel I should be investing it. However, this week has provided a review for itself, so here it is!

† † † – †

Thanks to the lovely people at Pitchfork, the new EP from Deftones frontman Chino Moreno's new down-tempo industrial side-project † † † (or Crosses, as it is apparently pronounced) fell into my lap (and anyone else's, in fact) for free.

Some good points: seriously good songwriting. Moody, dark soundscapes, but not so much that it makes you feel depressed. Obvious Deftones and Team Sleep influences.
One bad point: the † is used WAY too much! Here's the tracklisting, just so you can see my point:

1. †his Is A †rick; 2. Op†ion; 3. Bermuda Locke†; 4. †hholyghs†; 5. †

This makes searching for them within your media player library very difficult, unless you're a bit of a wizard with the 'Sorting' tab like me.

But apart from that minor aesthetic irritation (and actually, I like what they've done; it's just a bit awkward), well worth getting. Especially as it's free! I've even put the widget down below:

j.r.

The Sexual Revolution

I was at camp last week. During the week, two of the guests (aged 12 or 13, I forget) are rumoured to have shared a tender moment in the form of a kiss.

When I was a guest at camp, there were of course similar budding relationships among my fellow guests, but there was a key difference (in my mind), and that is this: the most any two people would do was prolonged hugging or sitting very close on the sofas in the games room, or occasionally hold hands (but that was a rarity).

There was an occasion when I was 14, when two guests my age had kissed, and all of us were appalled. I have no idea what the team thought – I assume they knew (considering I know about this year's little romance.

Twelve-year-olds kissing. Concerns me a little, I must say.

Thoughts?

j.r.

[[Edit: This is unrelated, but still worth mentioning, that it's not only the guests who get together at camp. Later this month I am going to the wedding of two long-standing members of team. Splendid!]]

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.