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Major Chord - The Rabbit Hole

Column: CD Reviews | Date Published: Wednesday, 2 September 09 | Author: Rory McCartney | | 2 years, 5 months ago

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[Vitamin]

True to the band's name, this CD is full of cheerful tunes (as major chords produce a brighter sound). Melodies are simple, but a richer texture is provided through the use of an accordion in Joy to Everyone and a '70s era organ in Hey My Name is Joe. It's a great package, with Dan Flynn's mellow voice, minimal instrumentation cunningly combined to produce an entrancing melody, home-spun wisdom about life that has a real ring of truth to it and a liberal use of black humour. Dan has drawn on his experience as a social worker, with song themes that include making the most of now (without worrying about what has gone before or is to come), and being your own person.

	Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall: [Matador] Reminiscent of Jack Torrance's demise in the final scenes of The Shining, the cover artwork for Watch Me Fall depicts a slightly deranged Reatard, hunched over, cold, with a pine hedge behind his right shoulder and a cloud of mist arising behind his left. With the release of Watch Me Fall, Reatard, like Torrance, may well become further estranged from those who once loved him; although which party did the most to catalyse the process of alienation it is hard to say. Reatard fans of old would have noticed the gradual shift in sound from his days with The Reatards and The Lost Sounds - when mangled fuzz, gritty low-fi punk and an overdose of synthesizers would engulf vocals and melodies in a wave of noise - to the strikingly more poppy inclination of his Matador Singles '08. However, with simplicity and charm still his greatest tools, Reatard has now crafted an album that is just as captivating as any of his past work. The song structures are basic and pop definitely his reference point, but thankfully Reatard's overwhelming character is channeled gushingly through his chiseling, bratty, yet charismatic vocals and delightfully sardonic, cynical and sometimes depressive lyrics. Chin up, Torrance.
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	Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings: [Roadrunner] Another year, another (excellent) Dream Theater album – and, as the band’s heroes Rush would say, “plus ca change, mais plus de la meme chose’. Really, you know exactly what’s lurking within the portentous sleeve – another hour or so of majestic, pompous heavy rock – so what’s on offer that’s going to make you thrust your paw pocketwards in preparation for the big shell out? Quite a lot, actually. Black Clouds… easily outstrips its predecessor, the uneven Systematic Chaos, although too often we hear the band treading water when they have the chops to break new ground just as easily. It’s telling that the ballad, Wither, does more in it’s five minute duration than any of the songs clocking in at between ten and twenty minutes manage to do, though in the nineteen minute epic The Count of Tuscany the band lay down the finest tribute ever recorded to Rush, in the process recording a true DT classic. Elsewhere a surprisingly direct quote from Megadeth’s In My Darkest Hour perks up The Shattered Fortress as it rambles to a rather directionless conclusion, whilst The Best of Times, despite it’s borrowment of a Styx title, actually rather resembles the pomptastic Kansas at their very best – and you won’t find me moaning about that. At the end of the day, you’re either a fan or you’re not, and the band’s crossover appeal isn’t big enough to reel in hordes of new fans at this stage in the game with a big ‘hit single’, but this is a strong, strong release with something to appeal to all fans of metal music in 2009, and as such comes glowing ear to ear with references from yours truly. Marvellous stuff overall.
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	Municipal Waste - Massive Aggressive : [Earache / Riot] Of course the key here is how old you are. If, like me, you're in your forties and were a fan of thrash metal the first time around, one listen to MA will have you chortling fondly at the remembrance of times past and, maybe, reaching for your old Anthrax or Crumbsuckers albums for a bit of mosh-related nostalgia. If you're half that age, there's a good chance you'll not have experienced the likes of chugfests such as Massive Aggressive before - and you'll probably love what you're hearing. In which case, can I suggest you buy Among the Living (Anthrax), or anything by Gang Green or Nuclear Assault, to see how this thrash thing is really done?
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	Modest Mouse - No One’s First and You’re Next: [Epic] A captured midpoint between the 2004 and 2007 releases, No One's First and You're Next takes inspiration from moments before during and after, but sets you down at a completely different destination to what is expected. Unlike most EPs of unreleased tracks, it holds itself independently from its parental albums, rather than just a tide over until the next full length. One for the die hards, this is a beautiful showcase of Brock's great questionings, rather than his demand-and-answer warblings. For a band that receives so much mainstream attention, this album cements the reality that the path they're treading is completely their own.
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