Tuka - Feedback Loop - released October 2012 (Big Village records)

Genres: Alternative Rap

This is an extremely well put together album from an artist I had no idea existed in a genre I don't usually think of Australian's fitting too often. Australian hip-hop artists have always perplexed me as our accents are a little goofy for this kind of music. The artist Tuka (pronouced tuck-a) flows very well with the music and can , on occasion, sing, although with not much range. The music behind him is tight and concise with a bounce that feels more of the world that Kool Keith and Aesop Rock inhabit.Tuka doesn't overstep himself or try to force his writing so as to come off as 'edgy', the focus is on the rhyme to accentuate the beat. Lyrically he's a little juvenile at times but it's in a charming fashion.

Tuka is part of a trio known as Thundamentals (their site is linked here)  and this is his second solo effort. How he punctuates his own identity away from the group is lost on me as I only know of this album. I will say that Tuka's presence is the most noticeable on the entirety of the album and the occasional guests don't move the spotlight away from him. Tuka's timing an tone are all of a high-calibre

Usually Tuka quick-fires his rhymes and this can make the verses blend together until they've been listened to a few times. The first half of the record has the strongest ideas and major choruses with 'Time & Space' ,'Die a Happy Man' and the title track but the second half has a few memorable moments in 'Dodo Bird', 'Next Door' and 'Mr. Inside'. .

If I could level a few criticisms at the record it would be to point out that there is not too much range to the presentation, the tempos are mostly similar and this can make the final parts of the album seem longer than they are.

All in all, this was well worth more than one listen through and I might be listening for a while longer.

RATING: 4/5 

Below is a video for the track 'Die a Happy Man' 

Noah and the Whale - Heart of Nowhere - released May 6th 2013 (EMI/Virgin)

Genres: Folk-pop, soft-rock

This album is apparently paired with a short-film of the same title which may be able to provide some context but that is all lost on me as all I get is the music and this music is so out of place in 2013 it is just weird. I had never heard of this band before purchasing this and looking at the cover of seven people all in the same white jump-suit with corporate logos I thought it was some kind of arty-rock or possibly something that had a dark focus. What I got was a horrible folk-pop album which sounds like the mid-1980's in a really bad way. I am not exaggerating, the sound of the 1980's is on this disc, in all its plastic glory. All the drums sound inorganic which brings the 'folk' part of the genre I put these guys into above into question. The singing is of the 'whinge & whine' variety. The melodies are tempos are from soft-rock or possibly roots-rock genres. The lyrics are the folk genre standards of regret and melancholy and the for the most part are generic 'you went with the other guy but you were wrong' nonsense. This album is far too precious about everything and feels calculated to fault. 

FIRST IMPRESSION: What the f**k is this s**t? It sounds like the Travelling Wilburys without any personality. 

FINAL IMPRESSION: It's really boring and is someone else's nostalgia. It's just weird. Avoid this unless you like moping around in cold/wet weather and wondering why your one-true-love doesn't feel the same about you as you do about them. 

RATING: 2/5

Here is the song 'There will come a Time' from the album Heart of Nowhere by Noah and the Whale. 

Soundtracks that were better than the movie - He Got Game 1998

He Got Game was directed by Spike Lee and released in 1998 and was not an entirely bad film but it was a very unfocused one. 

The plot is Denzel Washington plays a guy named Jake Shuttlesworth, who has an incredibly talented athlete for a son (played by real life basketball star Ray Allen) who is said to be the best prospect for college basketball as he is just exiting high-school. Jake no longer talks to his son or has any kind of working relationship with him because of his violence against and murder of his spouse and mother of his child that landed him in a long-term prison sentence. Jake is given a deal that if he can convince his son to pursue his college basketball career through the state governor's favorite team he can have a shorter sentence. He is given one week of parole to convince his son to do this. 

The plot of this movie is not the problem, the problem is the extreme amount of layers of ideas and talking points that are shoehorned into this sports-drama. Issues such as African American youth being exploited for their bodies instead of their minds by rich white people, the lust for money, the changing relationships as you grow-up, learning to deal with the past, poverty, structural racism, etc. Spike Lee loaded this film with details and it weighs down the entire mid-section. The mid-section of this overly long film tries to convey the confusion felt by Ray Allen's character on who he should trust and what does he actually want but it is laborous to sit through. Denzel Washington's character should have been the focus as he is facing the prospect of trying to reestablish a relationship with his son only because he wants to use him to get out of prison and this is explored and it is far more interesting to watch. The movie just meanders through its mid-section where you know the inevitable show-down between father and son on the basketball court is going to happen and it just takes too long for it to transpire. 

The main problem with the movie is that professional sports using young disadvantaged kids as prospects for rich white men to profit from is a very real topic but a drama involving the father possibly manipulating his son just muddies the water. This topic has been dealt with better in other places, it was dealt with head-on in the excellent 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams directed by Steve James and more lightheartedly in the 1996 romantic-comedy Jerry McGuire directed by Cameron Crowe where the issues underscored the reality of the situations involved so people could comprehend why Tom Cruise's sports-agent character was so conflicted.  

Click this link to watch the entire movie on youtube

The soundtrack was anything but unfocused. 

This soundtrack showed that Public Enemy in 1998 were just as talented as when they were the hot-topic in the late 1980's and early 1990's. It also showed that they hadn't mellowed out their political raps or become decadent by rhyming about hedonistic lifestyles that had become cliche in the rap genre even at this time. All the issues in the film are dealt with better and more entertainingly in this album, the movie should have stuck to the drama felt by its characters, it should not have dwelt on showing the drama the world that surrounded them created.

The issues in the film are here - sports agents profiting on black misery is in 'Politics of the Sneaker Pimps' and the excitement but ultimate dispossibility of those who are young, gifted and black is in 'What You Need is Jesus' and 'Go Cat Go'. PE also tackle how they and many other rappers became obsolete when rich executives felt they weren't profitable enough in the song 'Is Your God a Dog' which also touches on rappers killing each other to add to the conflict. PE address themselves as they hadn't been visible since around 1991 in 'Resurrection', 'Unstoppable' and 'Game Face' where they declare their intentions of not compromising and not backing away from the self-awareness they always preached.

On this album PE showed that they were senior heads at the business of making rap music as the music here does not hold-back but is always tasteful.The beats and music are clear, they have none of the noise and controlled-chaos that characterised their earlier work. They also show that they are seasoned pros at marketing by tactfully modernising their sound without destroying it. PE one-up Puff Daddy (later called P. Diddy then just Diddy but always Sean Combs) by doing the pop-rap staple of taking a well known musical hook and building a rap song over it better than the others with the track 'He Got Game' which uses the tune from Buffalo Springfield's song 'For What it's Worth'. This song was the obvious single and I remember it back in 1998 as getting decent airtime in Australia.

All in all, the soundtrack was focused and hard-hitting. The movie was muddled. 

Here's the song 'Is Your God a Dog'. It doesn't have a real video as the only music video made from this soundtrack, the song 'He Got Game' isn't available in my country. 'Is Your God a Dog' is bit less accessible for the uninitiated but is the stronger song, 

Harry Connick, Jr. - Smokey Mary - released February 2013 (Columbia)

Genres: Jazz-Funk, Vocal Jazz

This album is about celebrating New Orleans and its music. There is a lot of traditional standards type material on this album which has been tuned towards uplifting funk songs that sound like a street party in The Big Easy. Pre-Bop era jazz is mixed with the jazz-funk of the 1970's to give the music a nostalgic and lighthearted bent. The sound of the horns is very bright, clear and ever-present. 

This is the first album Harry Connick Jr. released in 2013 with the second coming out a few weeks back called Every Man Should Know which I'm told isn't as loose or funky as this one but is a bit deeper. This is very light music all the way through. Even the love-lorn songs on this album are dance numbers. In the linear notes Connick tells the tale of starting a 'krewe' or 'parades members' to party with each year called The Orpheus Krewe and enjoying the cultural melting pot of his hometown during celebration time. On this album, he uses lively jazz to sing little clever songs that sound very easy for everyone involved. The centre of attention is Connick's voice and he carries the show along quite well. The music is probably a bit safe but that isn't the point, the point is to carry a party along. 

The train on the front cover is float at Mardi Gras, the album is named after it. The first song is the title track at it signals the start of  reveling. 'S'pposed to Be' is a big happy gospel love song, as in "I'll be with you when I'm s'pposed to be". 'Cuddina Done It', 'The Preacher' and 'Mind on the Matter' are faster funk workouts. 'If I Were Him' is charming and has the line "I'm scared of crying so I sing". 'Dang You Pretty' is corny but at least Connick knows this and has some fun with it. 'Angola (At the Farm)' has a memorable shuffle. 'Nola Girl' makes good use of  flute to have choppy funk line and has some ragtime piano at the end with plenty of low lap-guitar. 'City Beneath the Sea' is a great way to toast New Orleans. 

It ain't nothing but a party. 

RATING: Worth the price of admission. 

There doesn't look like there were any released singles off this album but here's a video of 'City Beneath the Sea' which is an excellent song and can get tears flowing. 

EDIT: I found out that 'City Beneath the Sea' was actually recorded for Connick's 1995 album Star Turtle (so was the song 'Mind on the Matter'). I thought I might add a track from the Smokey Mary album. Below is the title track 'Smokey Mary (Boogie Woogie Choo-Choo Train)' with a stopgap video that isn't official. 

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories - released May 20th 2013 (Columbia)

Genres: House, Electronic, Dance

Daft Punk, the French duo of producers/musicians, return to add some nostalgia for your ears. In this outing Daft Punk have looked to recreate many of the sounds of the 1970's, 80's & 90's for today and on the whole their synthesis works. This is light and sweet music meant for times of extroversion. 

Daft Punk so supply a lot of the vocals on the record with the help of a vocoder to make them sound like robots but they rely heavily on guest vocalists to lift the songs away from sounding cold and inhuman. These guest vocalists provide a lot of the best moments. Pharrell Williams gets the best straight dance numbers with two songs 'Lose Yourself to Dance' and 'Get Lucky' where the idea must have been to recapture the vibe of Michael Jackson's Off the Wall album because the mix of nostalgia and excitement is the same. Paul Williams comes in to do a kind of singer/songwriter mini-rock-opera that lasts for over eight minutes and sounds like something off a Jim Henson production. It does have the telltale gurgle of Daft Punk's synthesisers and then vocoder vocals leading the close to the song but they are in the background for the first four minutes. Panda Bear lends some chant-like vocals to accentuate the song 'Do'in It Right'. Julian Casablanca of The Strokes for some reason has his vocals through a vocoder but his song 'Instant Crush' is enjoyable, it sounds like Daft Punk's work from their 2001 album Discovery. I think the only misstep is 'Fragments of Time' with Todd Edwards as it just sounds too much like Jamiroquai to sound distinctive. 

The best moment on the album is the mostly instrumental track 'Giorgio by Moroder' which  has Giogio Moroder talking about getting started in music and his approach with electronic music. Moroder says that he wanted to do an album with sounds from the 50's, 60's, 70's and the sound of the future and this is what led him to the synthesiser. The music behind this little snippet of dialogue sounds exactly like Moroder's work on the Midnight Express soundtrack and other things. This idea of synthesis of different sounds from different decades is the basic idea of the album. 

RATING: 4/5

Here is the song 'Get Lucky' 

Bring Me the Horizon - Sempiternal - released April 1st 2013 (RCA)

Genres: Alternative Metal

The life-problems of teenagers get a workout on this metal album. For this band's credit, they try to make ugly death-metal inspired music sound melodic with toning down the aggression and turning up the electronics to underscore the choruses and adding actual singing. What acts against the band is that this is very much directed at teenagers and young adults. This limits its appeal but this market will probably be lucrative enough to sustain many bands like this. The opening track 'Can You Feel My Heart' sounds like it was made to be put on a Resident Evil movie soundtrack. This song is very much like the kind of stuff put out by bands such as Evenessence and Linkin Park a few years back but with a more shout-a-long chorus. This formula is reused in other tracks such as 'Sleepwalking',  'Empire (Let the Sing)' and 'Go to Hell For Heaven's Sake'. In the song 'Antivist' the singer calls-out people who conform as "c**ts" and on 'Crooked Young' he screams "f**k your faith". This is all tailor made for young people to annoy their parents with. Unfortunately for the band I don't live with my parents anymore and I don't really want to annoy my partner.  

RATING 2/5

Here is the video for the song 'Shadow Moses' 

Alkaline Trio - My Shame is True - released April 2013 (Epitaph)

Genres: Punk-pop, Alternative Rock

This album sounds a lot like the Ramones if they went all sappy and only sung about love - which is not to say this sucks - it's quite good and will probably get you shamelessly singing along much like the Ramones can but the sentiments are all gooey. I had heard a lot of words being said about this band before I picked this album up but none of them convinced my to buy one of their albums until I started this blog.I'm glad with this purchase as the melodies are simple and the performances are energetic and concise. Some of the lyrics have a charming 'heart-on-sleeve' quality that is a little naive but endearing. I heard that this band is of the 'emo' genre (as in 'emotional')  which to me is ill-defined and really vague as all punk-rock and most pop/rock are always about emotional outbursts but I digress. 

The opener 'She Lied to the FBI' is wonderful. It's a ridiculous and simple story of taking the fall for a woman. The following song 'I wanna be a Warhol' blends humour with sincerity and ends with the words "still hung-up on you". The song 'Only Here to Disappoint' never stops being catchy and fun even though its lyrics are a bit of the sad-sack variety.'Kiss You to Death' is a big sappy love song that describes a stock-standard motorcycle-riding-dude and his flame having a big moment. This song probably has the biggest radio friendly chorus on the album followed by 'Only Love' and  'The Temptation of St. Anthony'. There are plenty more highlights in 'I, Pessimist' and 'Torture Doctor' but there is nothing on the album that is terrible. 

This album is brief and gets-in and gets-out in 40 minutes. The music is not anything revolutionary but very enjoyable. Never does the occasionally sappy emotional focus of the lyrics ever take away from this. 

RATING : 4/5

Here is the video for 'I Wanna Be a Warhol' (with Milla Jovavich in it!)