A band comprising two pop loving friends John Moreman and Paul Myers, the knowingly named The Paul and John bring some power pop gold on ‘Inner Sunset’, a collection of tunes written over a three year period. Fans of the rockier end of the genre will hear traces of many old favourites on this disc – Roger McGuinn, Alex Chilton, touches of Nick Lowe and even Soul Asylum…and, yes, a nod to them Beatles – but as with most acts ploughing a similar musical path, the homages are loving. Taking those influences and melding them with some great hooks, The Paul & John are almost guaranteed to please.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS – Monuments To An Elegy
Following The Smashing Pumpkins relaunch in 2006 after a half-decade hiatus, the band’s ever-prolific mainman Billy Corgan went into overdrive. The ‘Zeitgeist’ album of the same year was well received, but subsequent projects were both broader in appeal and stylistic content. With the launch of the ‘Teargarden By Kaleidyscope’ song cycle in 2009, Corgan embarked on his most ambitious project since ‘Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness’ in 1995. ‘Teargarden’ – an ongoing series of releases covering a concept of sorts – began with two deluxe EPs of unreleased material, but really came alive with its third chapter, 2012’s full-length ‘Oceania’, which at the time of release stood as the reformed Pumpkins masterpiece…
KNUCKLE – This Week’s Been Hell EP
When done right, the two man garage-rock/garage blues set up can be absolutely thrilling. It represents the minimum band configuration to make a noise most effectively. Less distorted than the US’s ¡Vamanos! but more ferocious than the UK’s most excellent Brockley Forest, Huddersfield’s own Knuckle blend garage rock and blues with a touch of stoner groove – as per 2014 breakthrough act Royal Blood, but with an element of DIY sincerity those guys lost by jumping straight in with a major label release. The results on Knuckle’s debut EP, although fairly typical of the genre, are enthralling with a broad range of sounds and styles throughout the six tracks.
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT – The Temperance Movement
At the end of 2012 The Temperance Movement scored a support slot on the Little Angels reunion tour. At the London show, the band’s live set had a reasonable amount of energy, but the tunes were largely marred by bad sound mixes and a frontman in a scruffy suit with a voice that sounded like it had half blown. Still, by and large, compared with the reception given many support acts, the audience seemed enthusiastic.
CLOUD ATLAS – Beyond The Vale
Cloud Atlas is a melodic rock/prog rock band based in York, formed from the fragments of various other prog rock/folk-prog bands. Vocalist Heidi Widdop will be known to some listeners as being the first vocalist with Mostly Autumn, as well as being a integral part of subsequent off-shoot Breathing Space and the short-lived Stolen Earth, the latter a band that also featured future Cloud Atlas guitarist/bassist Martin Ledger. Joining them is drummer Ian Halford and – new to the sometimes confusing and rather incestuous MA family tree – keysman Dave Randall. A guest bass is supplied by Stu Carver (also ex-Mostly Autumn).