2011: my year in music reviews

Best new album: Reflecting back on this year, I realise I haven't listened to even half the new music that's been released...remember the reason I started this blog was because I am shamefully lazy at exploring new music properly. But from what I have heard floating around the airwaves I have to say Gotye's Making Mirrors impressed me rather a lot, so it can bear this prestigious title for 2011. It is both refreshing and reassuring to see such new and original innovation emerging amongst all the Jessie J and Nicki Minaj.

Worst new album: I'm sure Lady GaGa's latest offering would have qualified, but I have denied myself the displeasure of sitting through that and so will give this anti-award to The Kooks' Junk Of The Heart. On the upside, it was completely forgettable.

Favourite musical purchase: The Original Broadway Cast recording of JERSEY BOYS. Beautifully updated versions of epically classic songs became without a doubt my most-listened-to album of 2011. So. much. love.

Favourite review: Definitely going to give this one to Tom Waits' epic Raindogs - such a sophisticated and eclectic collection of originals gave me much delicious listening material that was beautiful to attempt to illustrate for you guys.

Most tortuous review: I have to be honest with you here dear readers...I chickened out of one review this year. Yes, I, The Wanna-Be Music Journo, who has sat through the pain of Lady GaGa, admitted defeat in the face of one album. I began with my best objective ears on and ended rather soon after by pressing 'stop' and backing slowly away from my laptop in the middle of track 3. The offending album? Joanna Newsom's Ys. I couldn't. stand it. However, I plan to return and make it through the album dead or alive just to review it for you all. Stay tuned for the carnage later this summer...

Most surprising discovery: Nothing could have surprised me more than my newfound love for glockenspiel music, resulting in my purchase of Rockabye Baby!'s U2 album. Glock 'n roll dudes!

Album that elicited the largest volume of 'meh': The 'meh' reaction is surely the most terrifying of emotions applicable to the job of a reviewer. Such albums fall into the chasms of indifference, forever doomed to a life of limbo somewhere between Flipping Fantastic and Utterly Abysmal. Sadly, this title presents me with a difficult decision...but it definitely settles somewhere between Florence + The Machine's Lungs and Michael Buble's Christmas.

Most forgettable over-played radio-trash: Let's please not mention Rebecca Black or Friday ever, ever again...for her sanity and mine, okay? And if the radio stopped playing Adele I might actually be able to contemplate the thought of reviewing her without screaming.

New favourite band for 2011: This one has to go to Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, once again courtesy of Jersey Boys. Don't roll your eyes at me. I'm certain I would have been a fan a long time ago, had I been able to find a more comprehensive collection of Four Seasons originals, but the epicness that was the stage musical has now opened the flood gates for my intense Jersey-love. This won't be the last you hear of this. I said, don't roll your eyes!

Most anticipated 2012 release: Word on the street was that Mumford & Sons' new album would be in my eager mitts before the Harbour Bridge explodes with fireworks, but with no projected release date as yet, a 2012 would seem to be on the cards. With rumours of a very different sound from Sigh No More, the band seem set to prove their versatility, resulting in much excitement from me.

Next on the list...
I'm craving 70s, 80s and some noughties alternative, so:

• Sufjan Stevens' Illinois
• The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds
• Angus & Julia Stone's A Book Like This
• Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die
• The Grateful Dead's American Beauty
• The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground
• The Who's Tommy
• And yes...Joanna Newsom's Ys. When I can face it.

Bring on the holidays :D

Florence + the Machine = Lungs

Album: Lungs

Artist: Florence + the Machine

Label: Island

Release date: 3 July 2009

Peak chart positions/sales: (AUS) #3,  2x Platinum (US) #14, Gold (UK) #1, 4x Platinum (IRE) #2, 4x Platinum

Rating: 3/5 stars


The curiously inhuman reference in the title of British band Florence + the Machine is as incongruent with the band's rawly emotive music as the album is aptly named - Florence Welch's soaring vocals certainly draw one's attention to her...er...lungs. Lungs is F+M's debut album and since its release in mid-2009 has held top positions on music charts worldwide, attracting a 2010 BRIT Award and Grammy nomination for Best Artist as their popularity swells. Essentially fitting into the modern indie pop genre, Lungs takes mainstream pop and adds a clever and tasteful array of influences that combine to make a music that is too indie to be mainstream, too rock to be indie and too soulful to be rock, resulting in a refreshingly individual sound.

It doesn't take long to realise that the key to the band's success lies largely with lead singer Florence Welch. Only 15 seconds in we run headlong into Welch's sensual, velvet-toned voice that bursts with an underlying strength and is liable to explode into full-blown hollers at any moment. Her vocal style shapes the music in many senses, providing breathtaking climaxes that rise powerfully over full arrangements of bassy drums, handclaps, piano chords and sparkling harp accents. Capable of sultry softs and howling fortes, Welch's fearless vocal acrobatics and the explosive, visceral emotion she manages to capture in her deliveries are without a doubt the defining feature of the band's sound.

The album bursts into life with the ironic anthem 'Dog Days Are Over' which, after threatening to explode at any second from a gently throbbing pulse and Welch's tense vocal, erupts into a dazzlingly textured arrangement as Welch lets loose with what it probably the most stunning display of her vocal abilities on the whole album. Similarly, 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)' doesn't disappoint with another exhilaratingly punchy rhythm and fist-pumping chorus. The dance-inspired 'Howl' mixes up the musical material with a sudden cacophony of synthesisers in the chorus - though it toes the line of mainstream club fodder - and the goosebump-inducing 'Cosmic Love' is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

The subject material of Lungs is based heavily on issues of mortality and humanity that are often of a dark or violent nature and Welch's lyrics carry off the raw, often disconcerting material with the poignant artiness of Regina Spektor and a heartfelt sincerity. "I'm not calling you a thief /Just don't steal from me /I'm not calling you a ghost /just stop haunting me" Welch pleads in 'I'm Not Calling You A Liar'.  Not content, however, to simply sing about her own confrontations, Welch draws the listener uncomfortably close in 'My Boy Builds Coffins', throwing out the line "One of these days he'll make one for you" and repeating it ad lib in a cheekily unsettling manner.

So yes, daringly individual, surprisingly innovative ('Dog Days Are Over' was apparently recorded using one Yamaha keyboard and various kitchen-based percussion), refreshingly uninhibited...then why did I get so. damn. bored. with the whole thing?! I really enjoyed the originality of the first six tracks or so, but eventually I felt as though Lungs simply states 'This is our sound...like it?' 11 times. While the Blondie-esque punk rock 'Kiss With A Fist' and seductively sordid 'Girl With One Eye' provide some respite from what gradually becomes a predictable unfolding of tracks, their companions become unremarkable after the first half of the album and although F+M spice it up with a couple of new tricks along the way, the material becomes sadly overused and tired by the album's close. Given the hype surrounding the band, I was surprised and disappointed - I kind of expected them to be a bit more...you know...interesting?

Granted, it's a tricky niche that F+M are trying to fill - a sort-of hybrid pop/indie genre that has the potential to be explosively brilliant and highly marketable, but which doesn't yet seem sure of which side it stands on, resulting in an often unconvincing or just unremarkable fusion. Many of the songs (my personal gripe being the opening track) run for one chorus too many, while lacking the musical interest that encourages the listener to stay put until the end of the track. Which would work if they were indie...but they're not quite. Lungs is a promising debut that showcases a formidable amount of talent that I hope will come into its own, given the chance to develop, mature and fully explore the sound they are creating. I will be on the lookout for F+M's future works, but for now they have not left me entirely convinced.

Is it worth my $$$? - I'm inclined to answer this question with a wrinkled nose, tilted head and that whiny, uncertain "Yeeeeeeeeees" that actually means "Not really". There are some amazing standout tracks, certainly, but I'd rather pay $5 for a couple of favourites than an extra $15 for a same-same album flow.

Listen to: Dog Days Are Over, Kiss With A Fist, I'm Not Calling You A Liar