my name is mwd

In the last week I’ve ended up getting three new albums, two from Glaswegian bands and the third containing one track by a Glaswegian band. It wasn’t planned this way, honest :)

First up, I got the first full album by Viva Stereo, titled Optimism Is Not A Curse. Despite the cheery album title, Viva Stereo are a rock/electonic band with an overall dark sound, though think more Cooper Temple Clause than Radiohead. I’ve been looking forward to this album for a while, after Tim, the band’s bassist, asked me to comment on some of the early cuts. Well, the early cuts were great, and so is the album. The album opens on a very strong note, with Copper Wire, which has everything in there, including a choir like ending. The album continues strong, with a good mixture of vocals, rock sounds, and electronic noise. The other stand out track for me at the moment is Seeping Wounds, though this is another I’d heard before. The production quality is excellent, especially when compared to their Resistance EP which sounded slightly rough around the edges. The only let down for me is the penultimate track, Honesty, which seems to strive for something more melodic in the lyrics but it just doesn’t seem to come off. But other than that, an excellent album, and certainly a lot better than the last Cooper Temple Clause album. Viva Stereo deserve to do well off the back of this.

Next to be sucked onto the old iPod was Sounds Eclectic 3, a collection of live recordings from KCRW’s excellent Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show, hosted by Nic Hardcourt (you can read an Interview with NH here, in which he mentions Glasgow ;). Nic Hardcourt is the champion of real music on American radio, and KCRW being a public radio station he can play what he likes, and this is just as well as he has good taste and his shows cover a wide range of music. Anyway, this album is full of good stuff. It contains Thom & Johnny of Radiohead doing Go To Sleep, Franz Ferdinand (told you there was one ‘wegie track on it) doing Take Me Out, along with tracks by Paul Weller, Sarah McLachlan, Damian Rice, and The Polyphonic Spree. The later I generally haven’t found to my taste, but the song they do here is quite good. In addition there’s a bunch of what I assume are American bands of which I’ve never heard before, but I’m glad I now do. I imagine it’s a bit hard to find this CD in the UK, but if you happen to have the opportunity it’s another thing I recommend you get your mits on.

The final thing to come my way (in an attempt to cheer me up after seeing how much work my car needed to pass it’s MOT) is the Franz Ferdinand album. I’ve been umming and ahhing over this one for a while, but the track on Sounds Eclectic 3 made me decide to go for it in the end. That and there’s a really good song with my name in it :) FF have a good, simple sound, with interesting lyrics and good delivery. I’ve only listened to the album through once so far, but early faves are Take Me Out, The Dark Of The Matine, and Michael. It’s not a rush-out-and-get-this-it’ll-change-your-life type of thing, but it’s good rocking stuff, and top for hacking code to :)

I note that I tend to only write close to glowing reviews of stuff on this page, which I feel makes me sound like I love everything. This isn’t the case I can assure you, I just tend to review stuff I like. To prove the point, I finally decided to find out why everyone thinks the Stone Roses are so great, and borrowed their album Second Coming from a friend. Oh dear me. I just can’t see what the fuss is about. Jonny Squire’s guitar work is indeed good, but there’s not much point in that as it’s obscured by the dull, dreary voice of Ian Brown, who sounds like a depressed inferiour Liam Gallager (not a sentence I’d ever thought I’d have to write :). Generally I found the whole thing quite dull and un-exciting. Sorry Andy, but it just sucks :)