June 05 - The Albums

Sandi Thom
Smile…it confuses people (Viking Legacy / RCA)

You won’t have been able to escape this lady, she seems to be everywhere at the moment. As the heroine of the ‘basement gigs to world success’ story, and the voice behind the number one single, Sandi’s had a busy month. ‘I wish I was a punk rocker (with flowers in my hair)’ is a fine, sweet, heartfelt tune that makes us feel huggable; the album, as you might expect, walks the same kind of line. Which gets a little bit irritating after a while. There’s only so long her glassy vocals can swoop and dip over smooth, unruffled backing on ‘Castles’ and ‘Lonely Girl’ before the evil shadow of dread – or LeAnn Rimes, as it’s usually known – starts looming over the production and things start wandering a little too far down the mass market warblefest route that makes etc. want to commit acts of unspeakable damage. Saying things like ‘I’ll find my castle lies way beneath the sea’ won’t help, either. Don’t dismiss her yet, though: the album opens with the uptempo ‘When horsepower meant what it said,’ jangling throughout with delicious summer acoustics and ideas of horses waiting patiently in fields for us to leave the cars and come back to them (bless); and ‘What if I’m right’ displays traces of folkish imperfections and the sort of giggling personality that broadcasts to the world from home. Seems she’s got a choice between her kind of music, keeping the quirky edge, or production line Radio 2 fodder. One will make her a megastar; the other may not, but she’d have the tunes. We hope she makes the right decision.

Various
New Wave Heroes (Sony BMG)

Usually, the most interesting thing about compilations is the sound of the advertising barrel being scraped as they try to come up with yet another reason for releasing the same set of ‘Classic Rock Anthems’. Fathers' day? Dad Rocks! Christmas? Rocking around the Christmas Tree! Easter? Rock Resurrection! You get the idea. Anyway, this time it’s a really rather good selection of New Wave tunes that should be in your collection (and the obligatory one or two that are best left forgotten): Blondie, 'Atomic'; The Jam, 'Going Underground'; The Psychedelic Furs, 'Pretty in Pink'. Ace! You can buy it for Fathers' Day like the ad campaign suggests, but we recommend thieving it for yourself and getting your fix of classic tunes – and if you haven’t heard Ian Dury’s 'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll' before, you really, really should. Ask your Dad.

Def Leppard
Yeah! (Mercury)

Let’s be clear: we love the Leppard. They’ve been filling stadiums with big haired metal happiness since before etc. was knee high to a Fender Stratocaster, have been there and back, and have produced some great big tracks along the way. They’ve absolutely earned the right to cover whatever tracks they want. However, whether that means they should release those covers is a different thing entirely, particularly when they’ve fallen into the old cover trap: making it sound just like the original, without the magic bit of soul that made it great in the first place. If they’d done a widdly guitar retread of The Kinks’ 'Waterloo Sunset', it might have been interesting; as it is, the whole thing’s a bit limp. Perfectly solid versions, we just wish they’d done something…well, a little more like themselves.

Towers of London
Blood, Sweat and Towers (TVT Records)

While we’re talking about big daft rock outfits, here come Towers of London. They work harder than any band at trying to look like a dangerous rabble of scruffy punk-rockers, from the tattered edges of their leather jackets to the burst veins in their hangdog eyes, spent 2005 fighting, spitting, snarling, getting arrested, and releasing a cracking single in ‘On a noose’, which thrilled etc. with its speedballsy rock and punching chorus. And now, enough of the theatrics: time to deliver a record to match the hype, or begone. And they’ve done it…just. Towers certainly mean it, they’ve got passion and growling energy, but sometimes there’s just a little too much reliance on overly-familiar riffs and the doo-wops of The Ramones to secure a place in the memorable debuts hall of fame. Truth be told, they’ll burn themselves out before the second album anyway, so here’s the highlights: 'F•ck it Up (acoustic)' is a gleeful campfire nasty; 'Beaujolais' sneers splendidly and sets their punk stall out; 'How Rude She Was', their poppiest moment, struts along laden with catchy hooks; 'Northern Lights' is pimped-up early Supergrass with added stomp-factor; and of course the tremendous 'On a Noose' remains the most convincing number here. It’s a load of fun, delivered from the heart, and will be murderously good live – if they don’t kill themselves, they could be massive, but sonic fireworks like this never last long. Wig out to their primeval bombastic rawk madness before they burst into flames.

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