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Tom McRae - The Alphabet Of Hurricanes (Cooking Vinyl) 22/02/2010

He's clearly a man capable of incalculable talents, is our McRae. Having been nominated for a Mercury Prize and a Brit Award for his debut album at the turn of the last decade, the Essex boy proves he was no one trick pony, presenting us with a magician's hat full of rabbits, handkerchiefs and colourful ribbons.

Beginning with the tender "Still Love You", a romantic soiree played, rather implausibly, on a ukulele, McRae then goes on to startle us with just under a minute's worth of shrieking horns on "A Is For..." before the prettiness of "Won't Lie" has an underlying darkness about it, rather like the songs of "The Wicker Man" as interpreted by Tom Waits, though McRae's impassioned delivery raises this tune - probably the finest on "...Alphabet..." - to an almost euphoric state. All this, and lying within its content are the disturbing words "Let me ease the pain with this knife".

"Summer Of John Wayne" is something of a comedown after this, perhaps out of necessity, though Oliver Kraus's cello brings a heady sense of drama to proceedings before long, and the sweetness is thrown on the floor and trampled on vigorously until re-emerging triumphant for the scene's heroic finale.

"Told My Troubles To The River" is a kind of twisted folk tale that seethes with unbridled anxiety - another corker, but then he goes and spoils it all by serving up the longest - and by far worst - track on the album, in "American Spirit", which is not as clever as it thinks it is, ending up as something of a dirge, like James Blunt suffering depression. Following this is "Please", which is in equal parts thrilling and annoyingly trite. The killer chorus with sweeping "Graceland" style harmonies is almost ruined by a verse that sounds like Savage Garden. Thankfully it just about pulls through, but then Blunt rears his ugly head again on "Out Of The Walls".

What a relief then, when McRae's wobbly phrasing on the suspenseful, bluesy "Me & Stetson" gets things back on track, and the downbeat "Can't Find You" is worthy of Elliott Smith laudings thereafter - stripped down and enchanting, like the chillout tent at a particularly energetic festival. "Best Winter" continues in that vain,, while McRae rounds things off with the reflective whimsy of the gorgeous “Fifteen Miles Downriver”, a sparse arrangement whose heavenly violins - courtesy of Barbara Bartz – make this arguably the standout track of the whole shenanigan.

A mixed bag then, but one where the good outweighs the bad convincingly enough to come through in the end. 7/10

Tone E

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Hayseed Dixie – Killer Grass (Cooking Vinyl) 08/02/2010

I’ve just realised that Hayseed Dixie remind me of Barenaked Ladies. They just go on and on and on, having found their niche market, and will continue to do so, regardless of whether everybody else respects them or not.

This new album – their eighth, believe it or not – contains seven original songs and six covers, one of which, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, is somehow twice as bad as Rolf Harris’s version, and almost sinking to the depths of being as cringe inducing as G4’s. Not quite though, thankfully.

I must confess though, I did have to smile at the band’s take on The Prodigy’s “Omen”, a track which proves they still have the capacity to surprise you at will, despite most of the others being largely predictable (“Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” are, after all, obvious fodder for the Dixie) and I think you have to give kudos for that.

The most interesting thing about this album though, it has to be said, is that it includes the “complete unedited multi-track audio files”, so if you don’t like the way they’ve mixed it, do the bloody thing yourself. In an even more remarkable twist, one of the tracks – “Love Cabin” – can only be heard once you’ve mixed it down, apparently in an attempt to prevent the various band members’ girlfriends’ ageing mums from hearing it!

So while you may think they’re not doing anything groundbreaking musically, I think that’s a technological first! 6/10

Tone E

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Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now! – Fixin’ The Charts (Cooking Vinyl) 01/02/2010

Much playful silliness abounds on the latest project from Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos and his missus Dyan Valdes from The Blood Arm. At the same time, this is an unquestionably intelligent album, taking contemporary classics and modern day hit songs and turning them on their heads.

It’s been a while since we heard any kind of “revenge songs” in the charts, the only one in recent memory is Frankee’s number one “F.U.R.B.”, which replaced her supposed former lover Eamon’s “F**k It (I Don’t Want You Back)” back in 2004, but here Argos adopts the personas of blighted and beleaguered characters from all manner of story songs past and attempts to put their previously unheard case forward.

Perhaps the cheekiest – and maybe even finest – example is “G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. (You Know I’ve Got A)”, in response to Avril Lavigne’s 2007 number two hit “Girlfriend”, which runs along at a fairly frantic pace and contains a humorously biting lyric which questions the Canadian’s sanity (“I’m very in love with someone else / We’ve got concerns about your mental health”). The amusing asides never subside and we’re left to marvel at the witty ripostes to Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” in the shape of “Coal Digger”), Michael Jackson (“Billie’s Genes”) in which it is implied that the late superstar “broke more than just a young girl’s heart” in a horn laden floor stomper, and best of all, Martha Reeves, as the downtrodden long distance lover Jimmy Mack makes a scathing reappearance to inform the Motown legend that she’s been unceremoniously dumped, because “I’ve not been gone that long / it definitely doesn’t deserve a song” and “Yeah I heard your track / and if that’s your attitude, I’m never coming back”.

All in all, this is a deeply satisfying listen, taking sly digs at Bob Dylan, The Mamas and Papas and even cartoon band The Archies along the way, cementing the idea that Argos is some kind of sharper version of Pam Ayres for the new decade. Great fun. 8/10

Tone E

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Ocean Colour Scene – Saturday (Cooking Vinyl) 01/02/2010

They may not be regarded as the modern hipster’s definition of cool, bur Ocean Colour Scene have enough panache about them to see the band through to this, their ninth studio album, and, no matter how much you may try to knock them, they are undeniably terrific musicians, and their melodies remains as infectious as ever.

Album opener lies somewhere between Bon Jovi’s “Living On A Prayer” and Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street”, whilst “Mrs. Maylie” is an unashamed hark back to fist pumping late seventies alt.rock, at least until its unexpected diversion into “Revolver” era Beatles, at one point even utilising a similar hook to Abba’s ebullient “Mamma Mia”.

Title track “Saturday” is a dreamy, OCS by numbers nod to the sixties, with a big chorus reminiscent of Mott The Hoople, while “Just A Little Bit Of Love” evokes memories of George Harrison circa 1971.

What’s apparent throughout is that the band have been plundering the back catalogues of classic artists rigorously, and while that could, for some, be an almighty faux pas, Ocean Colour Scene manage to pull it off without sounding like en embarrassing pastiche of the real thing. So we’re served up lovingly crafted takes on sixties soul (“Sing Children Sing”), Scott Walker style ballads (“Harry Kidnap”) and, on the final track, “Rockfield”, a re-emergence of the “Moseley Shoals” sound for which the band are primarily remembered.

Not a bad effort for a bunch of unfairly maligned Brummies. 7/10

Tone E

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