Some lovely reviews......

Here are some reviews about things I've seen or heard.... lovely......

Review: The Culture Show – Title Sequence

The current Culture Show title sequence lasts a mere nineteen seconds and is not filled with fancy motion graphics. Instead, what we see is The Culture Show title in its’ Calvert style font on the current background of diagonal black and turquoise stripes. Presented on big poster size, rectangular boards, these have been placed around a city location and filmed.
Edited in time to the music, we see the boards on walls amongst other posters, on art gallery buildings, next to theatre show advertisements, at a bus stop and on walls outside nightclubs, amongst nightclub revellers.
I think the designers went for the simplistic approach and the piece basically says; Culture is all around us everyday in everyday situations.
I wasn’t particularly impressed by this title sequence and I don’t know if they made a sequence intentionally uninteresting so that it didn’t take away focus from the actual content of the programme, or if they were trying to be clever and arty. Either way, the only thing that I remember from the sequence is the actual logo – the title on its’ striped background.


Review: Arcade Fire – Manchester Evening News Arena

Having missed their previous gig in Manchester, which, was at the better venue for bands, the Manchester Apollo, I knew that, as a big Arcade Fire fan, I didn’t want to miss out the next time around, even though, as I found out, it was at the less atmospheric, less ‘band sound’ accommodating venue of Manchester Evening News Arena.
It was Saturday the 27th October 2007 that Arcade Fire started, what would be an amazing set, with a song off their second album ‘Neon Bible’. ‘Black Mirror’ is an atmospherically dark song, constantly building in instruments and vocals to a rousing shouty chorus, and an excellent opener – well, I thought everything was excellent… but then I am a massive Arcade Fire fan!
Their set was visually stunning as well. They had their Neon Bible logo in the middle above the stage all lit up with neon lights. They also had circular screens – two either side of the neon bible – and occasionally the faces of the band members would be projected onto these as they played – camcorder style. There was a theme of red, black and blue colours too. At one point there was video footage projected each side of the stage on vertical long columns and the way it looked was like a reel of film being shown.
Watching this band in action is amazing. Apart from the string section – two violinists – the other members of the band were multi-instrumentalists; swapping instruments here and there depending on what song they were performing. And when they were playing – the energy and effort and feeling put into each song was so strong and they worked together perfectly.
As well as the usual drums, guitars and violins on stage, they also played the keyboard, synth and there was also an organ and a megaphone was used in one song.
Front man Win was a strong character to watch and his wife and ‘co-front person’ Regine, had everyone singing along with her and she was fun to watch.
The highlight of the evening for me was when they played ‘Wake Up’. The first few bars with the guitar line and the drums and then having every single person in the arena sing along to the ‘ahs’ at the beginning while it was lit up, was amazing and sent chills down my spine.
Although I would’ve preferred the more intimate venue of the Apollo, or even better, the Manchester Academy, I am glad I didn’t miss this gig.



Review: Tegan and Sara – the album ‘The Con’

The name ‘Tegan and Sara’ rang a bell when I was reading an article, an interview with the front man of a band I highly regard; Jimmy Eat World. Jim Adkins was listing his top albums of 2007 and one of them was The Con by Tegan and Sara. Spurned on by this vaguely recognisable name, I began to research it and find out more… and eventually obtained a copy. Having at first seen the video for the first single off the album, ‘Back In Your Head’ on YouTube, after watching it I thought ‘Ok, it’s poppy, a little electro and quite like the band Kings Of Leon, who’s album ‘Because of the Times’ I love, so I thought I’d give the rest of the album a listen.
Starting off with the first two tracks ‘I Was Married’ and ‘Relief Next To Me’ I noticed just how well produced this album was.
As I listened on I noticed that some of the songs aren’t even over two minutes long, but what they do deliver is either a straight up, hook laden one and a half minutes or under two minutes of smooth, pure vocal harmonies on top of a simple guitar riff and moog synth with either jazz or straight rhythm drums. The other songs that are more than two minutes, build on either of these components and what I got to hear was dynamic song writing, with the quieter parts in the right places perfectly complimented by rousing, crescendo choruses and more hook laden riffs, melodies and harmonies.
Title track ‘The Con’ combines a simple vocal and guitar verse with an amazing heavy drums, synth, vocal harmony chorus. More of this formula is shown in songs like ‘Burn Your Life Down’, ‘Nineteen’ and ‘Dark Come Soon’.
Chris Walla who is a member of famous Indie band Death Cab For Cutie produced this album. This album also features the drummer from Death Cab, Jason Mcgerr, as well as bass duties fulfilled by Hunter Burgan from AFI and ex Weezer and The Rentals bassist Matt Sharp.
Tegan and Sara are twin sisters from Canada. Much emphasis is put onto the facts that not only are they sisters, but that they are both lesbians. Unfortunately, through reading some articles about them, some magazines/reviewers think that this is their major selling point, and always list this first before even starting to review their songs – a point not even worth mentioning as it should be their song writing abilities – the ability to make you feel happy in one and a half minutes to a song that you can relate to – that is their main focal point and the key to their success. The Con is the fifth studio album from the girls and an album that shows that they have staying power.
This album is one of the best that I have heard in a long time and I’ll definitely be looking at getting their previous releases. Thanks Jim!