(Audio) Editors - In This Light and On This Evening

Title track from the aforementioned Editors album.

Standout track from the transitional, third album that has the agression and passion to become an instant Editors classic.

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Review: Editors - In This Light and On This Evening

Ok, try to picture the scene. You’d burst onto the music scene with your critically acclaimed debut album, you’d then followed that up with a shiny, well-produced second album and now you need to release a third one push up to the next level. What do you do?

Well if you’re in Editors, you break out the synths and release In This Light and On This Evening.

Unfortunately, the 80s revival doesn’t come together quite as well as planned and often lacks the power and melody of previous efforts. Lead guitars are mixed lower, drums are less intense and despite lead singer Tom Smith’s best efforts, the songs are ultimately suffocated by the need for retro sounds.

However, it’s by no stretch a bad album and it’s clear that this a band who aren’t happy to produce the same material over and over. Title track and opener In This Light and On This Evening has an aggressive, almost dirty bass that drives the song and results in what is arguably one of the finest Editors track to date and first single Papillon features an uplifting chorus that could have happily featured on more mainstream second album An End Has A Start.

Other highlights include the industrial darkness of Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool and album high point Bricks and Mortar, one of the rarer times when the lo-fi sound really gels with the band’s passionate style.

All too often however, In This Light and On This Evening sounds incomplete and feels more like a collection of experimental demos rather than a new direction for the band.
Beneath the layers of retro noise, ballad The Boxer has a real fragility about it that is suffocated by the need for a synth at every opportunity and a lo-fi drum sound that has all the musicality of somebody sneezing.
Similarly, Walk The Fleet Road is overpowered by the use of electronics and although it doesn’t feel as forced as The Boxer, it still sounds muddy and again suffocates Tom Smith’s vocal melody.


Overall In This Light… is an album from a band in transition and is bold step, but ultimately one that doesn’t do the band the justice they perhaps deserve. It has some chilling moments of darkness and Editors should be applauded for pushing themselves and their sound in new places and nearly making it work.
Deep down inside is an impassioned beast waiting to emerge with what this album could have been, had the balance been struck.
Editors will be more successful, that’s for sure, but with In This Light and On This Evening as the necessary stepping stone, true success won’t come until next time around.

Visit them - http://www.editorsofficial.com

Or buy on iTunes

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NPR: Live Concerts From All Songs Considered Podcast

This second link is called the NPR: Live Concerts From All Songs Considered Podcast and contains live performances from it's sister podcast All Songs Considered. As with the previous link, it has a huge selection of artists all of which are available for free.

NPR is short for National Public Radio and as you would expect, they also offer a variety of other podcasts, all of which are available on iTunes.

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KEXP Live Performances Podcast

No review this time round I'm afraid, that'll come along over the coming week. Instead I offer a couple of excellent podcasts that I recently discovered. Both feature high quality live sets and interviews from some great bands and to top it all off, are available for free on iTunes.


This first link is the KEXP Live Performances Podcast and is pretty self-explanatory. It's released by Seattle based radio station KEXP and contains well over 200 featured artists. It's updated every week and is available for the princely sum of nothing.

I should also mention that KEXP do a few other podcasts that are worth checking out, all of which are available on iTunes.

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(Audio) Long Dead Signal - Red Lines

Taken from the self-titled debut EP.

Standout track that shows maturity and fragility, while also maintaining an element of gritiness that should please most Indie fans.

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Review: Long Dead Signal – Long Dead Signal

Sometimes it’s fate that brings people together and I’d like to thing that I was introduced to Long Dead Signal by a similar method. At a guess, I’d say that most of you are not familiar with their self-titled debut EP and, were it not for a chance encounter only two months ago, neither would I be.

Whilst I was attending a function in Nottingham, these guys played an excellent set and, fortunately for me, were handing out free copies of their debut EP.

So, is it any good?

Well, yes it is rather. Despite only being three songs long, and clocking in at a poptastic eleven minutes, it has an twisted feel that is dark in sound and shows that indie needn’t be so boring (or happy).

Opening track Again introduces us to the band’s signature, almost dissonant guitar sounds, and the passionate and confident voice that the lead singer possesses.
However, on reflection it’s probably the weakest of the three tracks and never quite develops into the finished article, despite the chorus sounding much bigger than it has any right to.

Second track Red Lines is, how Long Dead Signal should be represented, and features an opening sequence that showcases a mature and confident vocal performance not to dissimilar to a lamenting Thom Yorke, and soon develops into a something more familiar and powerful. Despite the band’s best efforts, Red Lines never loses its unsettling and slightly fragile edge, showing courage from the band that they could easily have shied away from.

Final track, Twizzle, is how album opener Again probably should’ve sounded and feels more complete than it’s predecessor. It’s familiar chiming guitar feels much more liberated and complements the grittier vocals better, and although it’s nothing new, Twizzle is a strong track that has a definite sprinkling of Muse about it.

Overall then, an interesting and slightly left-of-centre indie record that, despite the below-par production values that blight it, shows potential that might yet see a bigger audience. Long Dead Signal is a courageous debut, which is becoming all to rare in the current indie climate.

If Indie is your kind of thing, then you could do a lot worse than to check out with these guys.

Now if they can just raise the money for Abbey Road…

Visit them: http://www.myspace.com/longdeadsignal

Or add them: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Long-Dead-Signal/65637908242

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(Audio) The Boxer Rebellion - Soviets

Taken from the aforementioned album, Union.

An excellent track that not only showcases a great melody, but also a lyrical maturity that matches up with the enchanting falsettos and spacious guitar sounds.

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Review: Boxer Rebellion – Union

Before we begin, a heartwarming tale:

In 2003, The Boxer Rebellion looked set for big things. They played ahead of Keane at Glastonbury, signed with Britpop supremo Alan McGee and won themselves a support slot with The Killers.

But just as things were taking off, lead singer Nathan Nicholson became very ill and the band was forced to suspend all activities, including touring.

Fast-forward two years and the band finally released debut album Exits to a very favourable critical reception and, as before, they looked destined for success.
Just two weeks later, their record label imploded leaving the band with no label, no backing and no money.

Now here comes the heartwarming bit.

In January of this year, after lead single Evacuate was made available for free on iTunes, self-financed second album Union, became an overnight success. It shot up the download charts and just five days after release, it was number one in the US and number four in the UK. In it’s first week it outsold Kings of Leon, Coldplay and MGMT. It didn’t just match them, it outsold them.

Union got it’s long-awaited physical release on this side of the pond in September and to commemorate this (and the fact that it’s really very good) I thought I’d check it out.

Let me be straight with you, Union is excellent. And I’m so pleased. Reaching the top of any chart requires some kind of quality control, but it would’ve been very easy for the all the hype to get a little out of hand. Thankfully, it justifies itself with room to spare.

Union sets it’s stall out from the very beginning, making clear from the moment the galloping drums of opening track Flashing Red Light Means Go enter, we’re set for lush, arena-sized rock that recalls both Sigur Rós and Radiohead in their prime.

Acoustic layers eventually give way to a enchanting falsetto of “Tell us why you’re leaving” before all too soon we’re onto second track Move On. Signature galloping drums signify more of the same, which is really no bad thing. Lead singer Nicholson sings an aggressive refrain of “move on”, cleverly positioned in contrast to the previous track’s sentiment but proving no less effective.

Lead single Evacuate is quite easily the stand out track, and features more than one killer hook. After an unsure and lamenting verse, the chorus heralds a realisation. Jumping up a gear, Nicholson sings:

“Wait. When there’s nothing left to waste.
On a promise I can make.
You don’t want no one this way. Wait”

No longer unsteady, the singer knows what is required. The music straightens and fills out to form an excellent backdrop for the strained melodies.

Album tracks Misplaced, Semi Automatic and album closer Silent Movie, show a darker side to the band, allowing the exceptional lyrics to realise their true potential before almost always drawing to a thumping and, there’s that word again, arena-sized close.

It must be said that by the time we reach seventh track, Forces, the galloping drums begin to get tiresome and, despite the track’s killer chorus, make the song sound more predictable and laboured than perhaps it should.

Similarly, the guitars are superb for the most part, but as we move towards the album’s conclusion, there is a growing feeling of déjà vu that places tracks such as Semi Automatic in the bracket labeled ‘Album Tracks’. If the song were stripped to it’s bare bones, this would seem a wholly unfair assessment but, as before, there is a slight underlying sense of autopilot.

However, these are small and insignificant points. The soaring melodies and enchanting falsettos more than make up for any shortcomings and lyrically, the band are at a stage that many bands twice their age have yet to reach.

Frantic, dark and heart-wrenching all at the same time, it’s not difficult to see why Union propelled The Boxer Rebellion into the musical limelight and up the charts. Here is proof that maybe hard graft and top quality music can win through in the end.

Feeling heartwarmed yet? I certainly am.

Please visit them at: www.theboxerrebellion.com

Or buy on iTunes

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Rural Life - 'Yours, Eli' - Free Download Now Available

Further to my earlier review, I am delighted to say I can now offer a free download of Rural Life’s excellent track Yours, Eli.

It’s the third track taken from their debut EP, It Was Me, It Was You, It Was About Saying Goodbye, and is a great example of their simple arrangement and uncomplicated production allowing the song to shine through.

Make sure you check them out at myspace.com/clickclickbuzzbuzz - you won’t regret it.

Visit mainlygenius.tumblr.com to get it.

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