DOWNLOAD FRANCE: REVIEW

While I have certainly dabbled in the genre, I could hardly label myself a true 'metaler'. My skin may well be sufficiently pasty but I lack the flowing long hair of your stereotypical heavy metal fan and my beard bears closer resemblance to Henry VIII than Lemmy Kilmister. Musically, I have always been drawn to a neater, cleaner sound with tight harmonies and delicate instrumentals. As a result, my mind has been closed to vast swathes of metal music and thus I have tended to give certain festivals a wide berth. Download UK is a prime example of such and (despite the inclusion of my beloved A Day To Remember) it was once again dismissed this year. And then I saw this poster...

Honourable mention for Alter Bridge who were fantastic

When Blink 182 AND Prophets Of Rage are both playing second fiddle at a festival, it's almost an obligation to at least investigate ticket prices... and when you discover that it will only set you back 160 euros (including free camping), there really is no turning back.

Yes it did certainly have a bit of that quintessential French dodginess to it -food and shade provision was laughably shoddy- but that only added to the charm of the whole experience. Weather-wise, to use the standard British meteorological assessment, it was 'well ot', leading to the rather surreal experience of hearing the darkest, most piercing metal screams beneath soft blue sky and radiant sunshine. With so many artists headbanging their way through the weekend, it's tough to be selective but select we must.

Blink-182

Providing a summery soundtrack to the Friday sunset, the veterans of pop-punk lit up the main stage in the only way they know how: sing-along anthems, dick jokes and physics-defying Travis Barker drum solos. The short length of their songs allowed them to squeeze in the lion's share of their most iconic hits, interspersed with some lesser known B-side gems like Violence and Anthem Part 2 for those of us enthralled enough to know them. Rather than detracting from the set, the carefully selected new material complemented it excellently, the heaviest and fastest tracks (Los Angeles, Bored To Death and Cynical) chosen to satisfy the crowd of expectant metalheads. Matt Skiba brings the freshness, energy and, let's not sugar coat it, decent vocals which were unfortunately absent from Delonge's performance when I saw them three years ago. On the whole, everything was clean and refined, a superb way to kick off the festival.


Linkin Park
Although their discography can be just as prone to misses as it is to hits, Linkin Park have always shouldered a reputation for magnificent live performances. Their Download gig only served to reinforce such a reputation. The instrumentals were, as expected, on point, with added flair and extended solos (like on What I've Done) throughout, provided by Brad Delson: the calmest, most serene guitarist of all time. In amongst the chaos, the ear muffed figure amusingly perches on the amp, eyes closed, gently nodding his head to the fury of One Step Closer, Papercut and Faint etc. Predominantly however, the performance was carried by the supreme vocal combination of Mike Shinoda, always anchored to either keyboard or guitar and Chester Beddington who's left free to rampage around the stage. The former's effortless hip-hop flows and harmonies work in tandem with the latter's soaring vocals and rip-roaring screams. Both sound the same, if not better than the studio recordings.


Demonstrating a classy, intimate side previously unknown to me, the nu-metal pioneers even broke up their set with a stripped back acoustic rendition of Crawling, Chester displaying a delicate (a word rarely associated with Linkin Park) power to his voice. Tragically, however, they were let down by the new pop/dance tracks from their 2017 release One More Light. To these, the crowd reacted in a dull, subdued manner as a light chorus of boos rippled across the arena. It was performed faultlessly but when you follow Numb with what sounds like the musical lovechild of Owl City and a David Guetta tribute act to 90,000 hardcore metalers, I'm not sure what else they could have expected.

System Of A Down
Easily the most highly anticipated act of the festival, Armenia's greatest export stomped, roared and, at times, even caressed their way through a Mezmerizing (a little one for the SOAD fans), 30-song performance. I use the word 'performance' because 'set' simply doesn't do the four-piece, with their traversing of genres and mind-bending light displays, much justice. System have a truly unique sound, even amongst metal bands, mostly due to the range of Serj Tankian's vocal sounds, hopping from booming roars to high pitched chanting and spoken word. What really shines through live, though, is the seamless shifts from full metal fury to delicate riffs and beautiful harmonies.

Only a little bit unhinged

Songs spanning an entire discography (Atwa being the only notable omission), even the most diehard fans were left satisfied as each track was blended into the next, retaining an unwavering intensity. Years of performing at such intensity have audibly worn Serj's vocals a little, yet he gets around it by hitting each note perfectly but without holding it for the usual length. In any case, the audience were more than willing to take over with songs like Chop Suey!, Lonely Day and B.YO.B. drawing enough noise to jiggle the moustaches of Frenchmen for miles around. Participation was so wholehearted that, at times, the 90,000 of us almost resembled a vast, hairy choir.
        I'm not sure what the record is for the most people simultaneously head-banging in one place but I'm sure this crowd came close. There must've been some sore necks the morning after.

Prophets Of Rage
Everything about this performance was sweetened by the fact that, not only was Download pretty much the first major festival date in the metal-hip-hop conglomerate's crowded summer schedule, but a pretty rare opportunity in its own right. It's not an everyday occurrence for Rage Against The Machine's instrumentalists, Cypress Hill's B-Real and Public Enemy's Chuck D to all be in the same room, let alone touring together. But Prophets Of Rage didn't need their supergroup status to really leave their mark on the festival. In a politically charged, genre-defying set which featured remixes of hip-hop classics, impossible guitar solos and a touching tribute to late bandmate Chris Cornell, every single member was a front man.

This group define unconventional. The ability to intersperse Audioslave and Rage songs (which are themselves very distinct) with both contemporary and old-school rap isn't just brave, it's musically ground-breaking. The two rappers had great chemistry, dominating the stage and playing off each other throughout, their more conventional rap flows giving the Rage covers more of a hip-hop sound to them. Tom Morello, meanwhile, gave the best lead guitarist performance that I have ever seen live, his hands dancing around the guitar neck to produce those high-pitched riffs which categorise both Rage and Audioslave. At one point he even flipped the guitar around, revealing a "Fuck Trump" sign whilst he played it with his teeth... yeah you read that right... TEETH. Sensational stuff. For a man who's just done that to then refer to us as the best audience they have played to so far is almost tear-inducing.

Watch them perform Killing In The Name Of at Download Paris here

Green Day
Immersive. If I had to sum up Green Day's show in a word it would be immersive. In spite of the array of sublime talent on offer, Billy-Joe Armstrong still takes the coveted prize of the weekend's best frontman. At no point did he let crowd noise dip below a deafening level, constantly restoring the volume with some Freddie Mercury-esque 'AAYYY-OHHHH's. Rather than encouraging cheers, he demanded them, corralling the pink, sunburnt figures before him into clapping and jumping. We were more than happy to oblige.

   
In similar fashion to their 2013 Emirates Stadium performance, they invited several people onstage to sing and play. One of whom had clearly lied about his guitar-playing credentials and thus had to go and hold a tambourine at the back whilst someone else took over. Later, a woman did the same about her vocals, but carried it off brilliantly, stomping around the stage, jumping off amps, albeit butchering the bridge of Longview simultaneously, but I'm not sure anyone even cared. She then proceeded to execute the most almighty stage dive I have ever seen, sending some poor bastards in the front rows to A&E in the process.

Vocally, Armstrong was significantly stronger than four years ago, when he had recently returned from rehab, belting out tunes like Holiday, Hitchin' A Ride and Jesus Of Suburbia with relative ease. He is proof that the best frontman doesn't need to be the best singer. The band as a whole are proof that, with the right energy, you don't necessarily need to fanny about with intricate solos, even to a bunch of metalers; three or four chords will do. It's the Green Day way.

January & February Album Picks

Trawling through 2017's early releases so you don't have to

Music journalism is all about keeping in the loop of those new releases, not letting any good music, however wacky, whatever the state of the album cover and no matter how shite the name is, pass you by. Naturally then, my crude imitation of music journalism should be doing the same. So, like a bearded Scotsman somewhere on the North sea, I've trawled and trawled until I collected an excellently eclectic selection of new releases to bring to the table. And here they are...

Wyclef Jean - J'ouvert
For fans of: Outkast, Lauryn Hill, Pusha T

The world famous 'fugee whose hips don't lie: R&B / Hip-Hop veteran Wyclef Jean makes his dramatic comeback in style. He returns with a fully modernised sound featuring stripped back instrumentals, thumping bass and quickly snapping snares alongside his familiar soulful, rasping vocals. If you know what you're looking for, it's also easy to pick out some of those early 2000s throwback beats interspersed throughout as well, on tracks like Rear View and Party Started. His ability to incorporate his classy
guitar skills, always a unique feature of his music, is maintained here in songs like Hendrix and The Ring. A bit more of a variety of beats would be nice, with the album dwelling a bit too much on a Caribbean pop sound and not enough on his intricate lyrics or natural Hip-Hop flow but a triumphant return nonetheless. Watch him perform the maddest freestyle of 2017 on Sway In The Morning here. 3.5/5


Vant - Dumb Blood
For fans of: Cage The Elephant, Circa Waves, Catfish & The Bottlemen

One of the brightest up and coming bands in Indie music, 2017 is going to be a big year for Vant and what a way to kick it off. To summarise the band in three words, they're loud, they're angry and they're political, the latter, arguably their most exciting factor. Indie bands on the whole don't really dabble in politics nor social commentary, so to cover both in a debut record is remarkable. The London-based four piece comment on gun violence, atheism and global warming across thirteen tracks (all but one of which are under four minutes) in an album which offers us a feast of different styles.

There are grungy bass-lines and vocals intermingled with punchy garage rock power chords and bluesy guitar solos, all of which carrying the brash attitude of Punk. There are loud songs and there are even louder songs, not a lower-case letter in sight, as if to emphasise the latter. That being said, they demonstrate a fantastic range, Mattie Vant's raw, powerful and sometimes even delicate voice adapting seemlessly to such a broad array of styles. They offer something for rock fans of any persuasion. 4.5/5

Hanni El Khatib - Savage Times
For fans of: The Black Keys, Kings Of Leon

From the long hair and baggy tshirts grungy side of rock & roll to the raunchier, whiskey and hard drugs side, Hanni El Khatib brings us a collection of songs encompassing around two years of work. Khatib's voice is gravelly, passionate and has that echoey quality as if being recorded through a walkie talkie, a technique used by indie bands from The Killers to The Black Keys. Instrumentally, it's a mixed bag, sometimes dominated by heavy basslines and soaring solos, at others by the delicate, high-pitched 70s funk riffs and others still by the more arrhythmic percussive guitar sounds more familiar to modern indie fans. Some songs work themselves up into a dizzying frenzy whilst others remain more mellow throughout. The latter are the more successful on the album. I'd recommend Paralysed, Gun Clap Hero and

Black Constellation, the latter featuring by far the filthiest blues guitar solo I've heard in a long time. 3.5/5

Devlin - The Devil In
For fans of: Wretch 32, Kano, Skepta

'I've been away for a while cos shit weren't sweet like Tate & Lyle'. Devlin doesn't beat about the bush when it comes to his return. It's been a lengthy time away as well; his contributions have been noticeably absent from Grime's meteoric rise over the last few years. Very much a well-respected figure and prominent name within UK hip-hop, while other stars have reinvented themselves to ride the Grime wave (like Chip or Wiley) or carve their own alternative path through the scene (like Wretch 32), Devlin's style remains virtually unchanged. With that breakneck flow and razor sharp tongue, there's no danger of any maturing from that 'yout on the block' attitude that has, not only defined 8 years worth of his material but the emerging genre as a whole. Lyrically too, The Devil In is a continuation. Corned Beef City, Blow Your Mind and Bitches are typically acidic and venomous, not the sort of tune you stick on at a family dinner. Yet this has always differentiated him from others meaning 'Grimier' efforts like the Skepta collaboration 50 Grand feel somewhat forced. 3.5/5


The Menzingers - After The Party
For fans of: The Gaslight Anthem, Moose Blood, The Wonder Years

The Menzingers forge that beautiful little bridge between pop-punk and indie rock which, when done right, makes me very excited indeed. It gives you the best of both worlds: punchy guitar, catchy hooks and easy-on-the-ear harmonies balanced with well-crafted lyrics and more complexly structured songs. After The Party offers a combination of heartwarming love ballads (Midwestern States, Lookers), fond reminiscence of a decade as rock stars (Tellin' Lies, House On Fire) and your standard issue pop punk track about the little scamp running away from a girl's enraged boyfriend (Charlie's Army). The whole record carries with it a jovial air of unburdened youth despite most of the band members being in their thirties, yet not at a single point does this feel forced or tired. 4.5/5

LIVE REVIEW: The Wonder Years @ The O2 Institute Birmingham

Five stars for Philadelphia's pop punk six-piece on their return to the UK

I don't imagine people visit this blog with much regularity; about as frequently, I assume, as they would a distant, racist elderly relative. On the off-chance that you consider yourself a 'reader' you will know that I am a devout follower of pop punk. I have waxed lyrical about the genre over the last couple of years so I won't explain its ins and outs (may I instead direct you to this post), nor will I recycle the same jokes or pop punk tropes. Two weeks ago The Wonder Years, a working class group from South Philadelphia, continued a seemingly endless world tour at Birmingham's The Institute in support of their 2015 record: No Closer To Heaven. 

Taken from the set of The Walking Dead

The crowd, comprised of the usual band of incredibly sweaty teenagers who give pop punk gigs that distinctive smell and alarmingly sticky floor. Their energy was unquenchable, with a central moshpit which lasted the full hour and a half. Accompanying them was a not so usual band of bearded forty-somethings, one of whom resembled a hipster Karl Marx.

Nearly a year and a half on from its release, it's evident that they really have grown into performing the songs, with confidence in a well-rehearsed setlist. Throughout this period, their fans have clearly not just familiarised themselves, but have grown to love the group's new material, British fans in particular eagerly anticipating a tour. This works to everyone's benefit. The crowd belted out pretty much every song down to the word which in turn energised the band's performance further. And what a performance it was...

Several elements came together to make it a great show. Above all was the amount of energy they put in to the performance, keeping the crowd in constant frenzy throughout. Having six members really comes into fruition on stage, with two lead guitarists giving each song that extra depth and three backing vocalists to make every harmony more powerful. Furthermore, Dan Campbell, the lead vocalist, is given the additional freedom to roam about the stage and engage the baying crowd which he did excellently. I don't know if pop punk bands practise throwing their heads towards the ground in perfect unison but they nailed it every time. I don't even know why it gets the crowd going but it certainly does.
     
Their setlist was very different to what I had expected, opting for several lesser-known, quieter tracks like The Devil In My Bloodstream, Madelyn and Cigarettes & Saints. However, each of these more delicate songs acted as a buildup to anthems like Cardinals and Passing Through a Screen Door which followed them. Featuring songs from every one of their major releases, it offered something for fans, new and old. I'd have liked to see a bit more material from The Greatest Generation but that's personal preference more than anything else. Mirroring Sum 41 who I'd seen at the institute last year, The Wonder Years left their fan favourites: Passing Through A Screen Door and Came Out Swinging until the end of the performance and encore respectively. Campbell, finding new levels of intensity, stood perched on an amp directing the crowd like a sweaty, bearded conductor whilst trying to dodge enormous inflatable balls as they were batted towards him from all directions. He provided that final burst of energy to cap off a fantastic performance and as audience members trickled out, caked in stale beer and sweat under half-lit florescents, very very few would have been left dissatisfied.




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Wretch 32 - Growing Over Life | THE Best UK Hip-Hop Album Of 2016

Is anyone else just a little bit tired of Grime? Yes it may be a huge movement that's getting international recognition. Yes it may be dominating the UK rap scene right now. Yes it has transformed The North Face from mum-wear to street-wear. But all of this has taken the limelight away from, and consequently undermined a whole host of British MCs who aren't getting the attention they deserve. This includes Tottenham's own Jermaine Sinclair or as we know him, ya boy Wretch 32. Wretch has always tended to be on trend with the rest of UK rap, bringing out those radio-friendly, rigidly structured tracks with catchy, lyrically simple choruses. Tracks like I'm Not The Man, Unorthodox and Don't Go which brought him fame when his debut Black And White was released five years ago. The sort of tracks that get put on at pre drinks that one guy secretly knows all the lyrics to but don't ever achieve a permanent place in the playlist. While many of his contemporaries like Example and Devlin have faded out of popular existence, Wretch has evolved to match the constantly changing trends of UK hip-hop and stay current. So, naturally, the next step would be a full on grime record right? WRONG.


Growing Over Life is a lyrically sophisticated, expertly produced rap album which flirts with elements of Grime, Reggae and R&B throughout. There is so much variation within the record that it can't be labelled anything more specific than hip-hop. It begins with Antwi, a fiery opener, burning with passion, dedicated to the late music industry lawyer and mentor Richard Antwi who passed away earlier this year. It's followed by the R&B inspired Pressure, Take Me As I Am and It Was All A Dream which depart from the typical hip hop format with Mr 32 himself pitching in with some vocals. The latter two tunes, as well as the Chase And Status-esque, Wilkinson-produced 6 Words demonstrate the persistent crossovers between his strong dance and R&B influences and natural hip-hop flow.

What is so refreshing about all this material is that it does without all the posturing and boasting which has turned me off Grime. In Cooked Food, for example, he has the confidence to actually address feelings and write a romantic, yet well-crafted love song. He's not afraid of tarnishing his street image by making tracks which don't dehumanise women as 'yats' or 'bitches' or getting called a 'melt' for doing so. His lyrical style is as intricate as ever, basing entire songs on a theme and working it into every line like in Cooked Food: "I love it when you dress saucy/and the way you make it dip when you're naughty".

Another factor which elevates Growing Over Life above your everyday grime album is its production, with Wretch enlisting the help of two London-based producers Mikey Muzik and Mo Samuels. The standard simplistic backing synths make way for more complex arrangements heavily featuring piano and violin which perfectly compliment his often mellow bars.



What impresses me most, however, is the political significance of his work which shines through in the record's latter half with songs like Liberation and Antwi exploring racially charged stereotyping, police violence towards black people and the government's failing of the black community; a perpetual problem in Tottenham. He's strongly influenced by his uncle Stafford Scott, the fierce equal rights campaigner who has tirelessly fought against police brutality and institutional racism. Open Conversation & Mark Duggan is the standout reflection of this. It deals with the aforementioned issues and focuses on the impact that the killing of Mark Duggan, a childhood friend, had on the tight-knit community within which he grew up. He recently commented in an interview that "To me he’s not a news statistic or video clip. He’s someone I went to school with". Just look at these lyrics:

How many of my n****s I'll be seeing in the station?
I'm getting fed up
'Member they put the cuffs on me
Felt like I couldn't even stand up or breathe

Brother Mark never made it to custody
I see his kids now and again
I give them every cent that I've got up in my pocket
But it isn't enough


I mean I'm all for keeping this light-hearted but this is really important and it saddens me. Too many people (shamefully myself included until this song opened my eyes) have been persuaded by the tabloid vilification of Duggan and those protesting his seemingly unjustified killing. We tend to convince ourselves that racial violence does not exist in the UK, that it's only a problem in America. People are far to quick to point fingers at individuals whilst overlooking the inequality, both class and racial which plagues our cities. Wretch is yet more admirable in my eyes for using his voice as a cultural icon to address such important issues and bring them widespread attention. It's precisely what rap, a genre that from its birth has given black people a voice, is missing right now, especially in the UK. The nearest thing we have in the mainstream is Skepta's Crime Riddim, which hardly does the huge problems facing our society justice.

This record really is special and represents nearly 5 years of hard work. I just hope we don't have to wait another half decade for the next one.

Kings Of Leon - WALLS

Let me set the scene. It's 2009 and Kings Of Leon are on stage at Reading festival and halfway through their set-list. They have been methodically strumming out a mix of songs from their last album Because Of The Times and year-old platinum baby: Only By The Night. Cruising through new material, the crowd noise still isn't really building up to anything spectacular. There's the core fans, crammed in at the front, in full voice... but they're always there and despite the enormous crowd behind them its hardly the festival reception the band had expected. They forget that this is Reading; 80% of the punters are too smashed and high to appreciate Caleb Followill's delicately rusty vocals or his cousin Mathew's intricate guitar pieces, they just want to shout the 6 to 10 words in a row that they can remember. Before he knows it, Caleb has gone through Be Somebody, Revelry and Crawl, all incredible new songs in their own right but the crowd are waiting for that song. And when he plays the opening riff and an almighty cheer goes up... well... Caleb loses his shit:

The highlight of that excruciating video is the crowd not even noticing the band deliberately butcher their favourite song and continuing to cheer, as I said: Reading. What it really shows, though, is a band frustrated by the success of one song (written half-jokingly) overshadowing their entire repertoire of material. They won't be having the same problems with this album: every song is fantastic.

WALLS opens in true Kings Of Leon Fashion, the rumbling bass and soft, catchy guitar melody ease us in to leading single Waste A Moment, a memorable track that I'm sure will be eagerly awaited on any setlist. The Tennessean four-piece have always been adventurous, refusing to be constrained by a particular genre, always seeking to vary things up with each new release. This record is a great extension of that attitude. Each intro seems vastly different from the last, the jingly, up beat guitar of Around The World sounding like Franz-Ferdinand while they blend punchy Weezer-esque power chords with an intricate melody vaguely reminiscent of R.E.M. in Find Me. 

At the same time, the quartet maintain that lyrical charm which characterises their material, demonstrating yet again that there's no harm in repeating a line if it sounds fucking great. I mean, I'm clueless as to what "Just like a reverend, like a reverend on the radio" means but they sing it so many times that you figure it must mean something deep. WALLS stands for We Are Like Love Songs so you'd guess that love is a major theme of the Followills' songwriting, but they address it in all manner of styles. Soft ballads are intermingled with stomping anthems, all of which are written from an almost retrospective outlook, older and wiser than on previous records.

You'd never guess they were an indie band.....

As a whole, the album (KOL's 7th) seems more clean-cut and expertly produced than anything they've released previously; every song seems to have been crafted to suit the group's stadium capacity crowds. Where their sound had, in the past, lacked a certain refined smoothness, WALLS is about as smooth as it gets. From the sleepy, melodic piano in Conversation Piece to the Spanishy guitar solo in Muchacho, everything is polished and intricately put together where previous records were a little bit rougher around the edges (intentionally more often than not). This in combination with some incredibly catchy chorus hooks makes the individual tracks far more memorable in their own right. They really do cover all the bases with this one and, if they can keep their cool when the tanked up crowds demand Sex On Fire, they really can put on an incredible show with the wealth of great songs they now have under their belts.

9/10

Pop Punk Invasion: Greenday, Blink 182 and Sum 41 All Return With New Material

Pop punk. The genre of the 90s teenager, the genre of garage rehearsals, of baggy tshirts and hair so spiked with gel it could take your eye out. The genre of teenage angst and male mascara. The genre that brought you: 'Everything sucks', 'school is dumb', 'being in a band is a real job mom' and other assorted issues troubling the lives of middle-class suburban, Californian teens.
      For what it lacks creatively, you could argue, it makes up for in its easy-listening quality and 'relatable' charm. Its wave of popularity in the late nineties saw the emergence of three giants of pop-punk: Green Day, Blink 182 and Sum 41 who themselves inspired a generation of bands from  Neck Deep to A Day To Remember, shaping the style of pop music for several years to come. The power chords, simplistic structure and basic harmonies (albeit synthesised within an inch of their lives) of Busted and Avril Lavigne can be directly traced back to the pop-punk movement.

A common or garden pop-punk fanboy

      Green Day's Basket Case, Blink 182's All The Small Things and Sum 41's In Too Deep/Fat Lip respectively were catapulted to anthemic status thanks to plenty of radio airtime and huge commercial success. For many people however, the past is where these bands remain, a Polaroid of the nineties nostalgically belted out in the singalong room of a nightclub at 3am or during a 10 o'clock re-run of American Pie on ITV 2... but ultimately forgotten. This is reflected in the slump of their commercial success. Be this due to alcohol/drug addiction, band falling-outs or a simple inablity to recreate the youthful catchiness of their past records, it can't be known but all three have dropped off the mainstream radar in recent years.
   


Well the giants are back... all three releasing new albums in the past 3 months for a veritable feast of pop-punk. I urge you to have a listen and work out for yourselves if I'm talking bollocks or not.

Sum 41 - 13 Voices

In mainstream circles, Sum 41 would be considered a '2-hit wonder' of sorts. Their SkatePunk masterpiece All Killer, No Filler was never followed by anything nearly as successful, with a combination of personnel changes and Deryck Whibley's alcoholism forcing the band into a hiatus by 2011. However, they return now (with Dave 'Brownsound' Baksh) with the metal-inspired 13 Voices. Despite a generally far heavier sound than fans would be accustomed to, the familiar spoken/shouted SkatePunk verses remain integral.
      This transition towards a more metallic style, with its accompanying fast-paced guitar/drums and more complex composition is pretty well-suited to the Canadians' punk-orientated style. In some songs this comes off brilliantly including Fake My Own Death (one of the record's best tracks) with its Muse-like intro and bridge combining nicely with the more recognisably catchy harmonies in the chorus. The title track 13 Voices too benefits from such a powerful intro. However, this sonic transition seems slightly forced in several of the songs, notably Goddamn I'm Dead Again and The Fall And The Rise, which both lack a memorable hook.

Abandoning the traditional high school-themed lyrical tropes of 'classic' (it feels stupid using that word) pop-punk, the content focuses on Wihbley's battle with and recovery from alcoholism. This imagery can be seen most evidently in War, my favourite track. The music video mirrors this with Whibley literally burning his old stuff: skateboard, guitar (incredibly confusing) and most importantly a bottle of Jack. Very metaphorical.

For fans of the group, it is a known fact that the band (Whibley in particular) have flirted more and more with metal throughout their career with songs like Pain For Pleasure and Bloody Murder but for me, their combined metal-pop-punk sound needs more refinement. 6.5/10

I can say from firsthand experience that they remain good live though. 

Green Day - Revolution Radio

Green Day have undergone a similar reinvention since Dookie and Nimrod, transitioning towards a far more classic rock sound. Revolution Radio is simply a continuation of that, its opener Somewhere Now's intro testament to their inspiration: namely The Who and Cream. Overall though, it's a pretty archetypal Green Day record featuring the familiar muted guitar verses, relatively simple chord progressions, soaring harmonies and generally lots of 'OOOOOHH's in the background. Like it or hate it they are nothing if not consistent. That being said, they are certainly growing (slightly) more adventurous with some pretty complex guitar solos in Revolution Radio and Say Goodbye. 
       The album certainly offers some standout tracks in Revolution Radio, Somewhere Now and Still Breathing. Its also refreshing to hear them explore that rock and roll side further than before.

However, any record they produce will always be inescapably compared  to American Idiot, particularly when there isn't exactly much deviation from their blueprint. And unfortunately its never going to be a favourable comparison for them. Revolution Radio lacks both the political edge and the delicacy (apart from the raw fragility of Ordinary World) of its predecessors. It shines brilliantly through several singles but the record as a whole has not reached past standards. 6/10

Blink 182 - California

Age has been incredibly kind to Blink 182. Over the years they've transitioned from childish teenagers singing anthems about high school, house parties and girls to...... childish 40 year-olds singing anthems about high school, house parties and girls. They've become the obnoxious uncles of the genre. Despite numerous break-ups in the past, this is the first album released under the name 'Blink 182' without founding member Tom Delonge. His replacement, Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba slots into the group seamlessly, bringing significant creative powers of his own.
     
For me, California strikes the perfect balance between experimental and nostalgic. The new synthesizers (in Left Alone for example), guitar arrangements and (slightly) more nuanced lyrics blend with the effortless harmonies and simplistic song structure we can all recognise as 'classic Blink'. In Matt Skiba, they have found a voice pretty much identical to Delonge with one key difference: Skiba can still actually sing and harmonises perfectly with Hoppus. It is these harmonies which are certainly my favourite feature of the album. They shine through in nearly every song and the slight auto-tuning actually makes the voices blend together that extra bit better.
       As well as this, the album really demonstrates the Californian trio's growing lyrical maturity, the highlight being Home Is Such A Lonely Place Without You: the album's version of Down or Stay Together For The Kids. Okay, when I say maturity, this is by Blink 182's standards, you've still got songs like Sober ("I know I messed up and it might be over/ But let me call you when I'm sober") and Kings Of The Weekend ("It's Friday night let's lose our minds") which remain very much in the 'High School' songwriting domain. Of course there's the old "nah nah nah nah nah"s chucked about left right and centre but that's customary really. How they can sing about being Teenage Satellites when they experienced their teenage years over 20 years ago seems baffling but, somehow, not once does it seem out of place. 8/10

All of these factors combine to produce that sound that is unmistakably Blink 182 and that really is their charm. Sure it may not be groundbreaking, but they never try to reinvent themselves, nor do they attempt to emulate other styles. "High School, beer and girls" is what they began with and its what they're bloody well sticking with to this day. And that, ladies and gents, is why California is the only 'Pop-punk' album on this list.

Review: Catfish And The Bottlemen - The Ride | A Reinvention Of 'The Balcony', But Does Anybody Mind?

When it was announced earlier this year that the leather-wearing northerners would be returning with new material, it prompted the usual eager clamouring amongst their ever-expanding fan base. Would they be changing their style? Would their rise to fame see them lose that down-to-earth commentary which characterised their debut? Would they retain their non-mainstream charm? These questions were answered with the release of The Ride late last month.
     The answer: nearly everything has remained the same, the one word song titles, the intense high energy, the floppy, non-mainstream haircuts. The album is so similar to its predecessor that many have labelled it a consolidation of The Balcony's material. Sonically, however, they remain certainly far from tired, with the ability to produce quality, seemingly original tunes from essentially the same ingredients, albeit more nuanced this time around.

While the tone remains fairly similar between the two records and thus makes them seem rather alike at the surface, the progress is far more apparent within the intricacies of each song. For example, its clear to note the advances in the complexity and experimentation of the lead guitar in songs like Anything, Postpone and Soundcheck  with a few cheeky distorted solos featuring in the latter two. This is also the case with the rhythm guitar with McCann straying from the more basic chord patterns in the background to a set of far more intricate backing riffs.
      It also seems to me that they have let some of their early musical influences really shine through with the jangly high pitched guitar and what I'll call the vocal distortion (that thing where it sounds like he's singing through a radio) of The Strokes coming through in Emily. as well as the lullabic vocals/guitar-picking of The Kooks (who they supported on tour last year) on Glasgow. However it would be ridiculous to ignore the most obvious influence of all, Mr Noel Gallagher and Oasis, whom the quartet have always idolised. In the verses of Postpone, the piercing solo of Red and basically the entirety of Oxygen (hugely similar in structure to Oasis' The Importance Of Being Idle), we can see Gallagher's influence, not just thanks to their shared producer, Dave Sardy, but to a sound which became entrenched among a generation of young songwriters hoping to emulate their style.

This influence goes beyond sound and style alone, but is strongly rooted within the lyrics as well, One of McCann's greatest strengths is his lyric-writing style which is the most transparent link to their Mancunian heroes. NME perfectly summed this up as 'Everyman lyricism'; the content is not far-fetched or metaphorical so as to be truly reflective of audiences. Who gives a toss about metaphors and pathetic fallacy anyway? Not McCann: he talks of catching a girl "on her fag break" who later wakes up "just to join me to smoke". There are so many references to smoking, The Ride is basically an audio advert for the tobacco industry. Yet in this lies a unique charm. They depict the de-romanticised stories of ordinary people, thus abandoning any lofty status and coming down towards the level of the audiences.

Catfish's sound is really geared towards the live performance, allowing them to generate an incredible atmosphere at any venue they play. We had already seen this to some extent in The Balcony but its clear that they have added the experience of a year of touring. Perhaps this is most obvious in the extended bridges and solos of Anything, Soundcheck and 7 which will be clearly adapted during the live performance.

So while it may not be the most adventurous of records, it would be a mistake to claim that it is the 'same' as the last, Instead, I reckon they might be 'doing a Mumford & Sons', with this album really consolidating their now dominating presence in alternative music and enabling them to be more bold in the future. There are some truly great songs in this album, Oxygen and Outside standing out for me as favourites. However, they are yet to find their Wonderwall or I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor, an anthem which really categorises their overall quality. That being said, they really are on the way to doing so.