Tag: Review

EP review: Charli XCX – Vroom Vroom

The new label and its eponymous EP send mainstream pop underground to an alarmingly enjoyable effect.

Originally published in The Edge

The ascension of Charli XCX from Bishop’s Stortford to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 is peculiar to fathom. One moment, you’re uploading tracks to MySpace with titles like ‘!Franchesckaar!,’ attending raves to perform with your parents, and signed to Orgy Music (which is apparently a genuine record label); the next you’re pop’s resident punk edge, trashing hotels and raucously bitching from Los Angeles to Tokyo, yet still having the approachable youth appeal to pull off a theme song for tearjerking young adult tale The Fault In Our Stars.

This apparent lack of intermediacy makes her, seemingly, the perfect fit to mesh with the incredibly bizarre and similarly bombastic PC Music label/genre/subculture/social study/pyramid scheme. On this bridge to the surely inevitable third album later this year, she launches Vroom Vroom, her own experimental pop vanity collective, and Vroom Vroom, a concise and intense four track EP to go with it produced by aural oddball SOPHIE. Continue reading “EP review: Charli XCX – Vroom Vroom”

Single review: Philip George & Dragonette – ‘Feel This Way’

Two bars of repeated piano? The impeccable Dragonette? Inferences of Earth, Wind & Fire? It’s almost as if Philip George knows the formula to a summer smash.

Originally published in The Edge

With the BRIT Awards taking place on Wednesday and Philip George’s bedroom-produced debut ‘Wish You Were Mine’ up for the British Single award, his third shot up at the top of the charts has prematurely beckoned the season of commercially-oriented house releases. Alongside veteran Canadian electropop ensemble Dragonette, the light nineties vibe of ‘Feel This Way’ easily crafts his most enjoyable release yet. Continue reading “Single review: Philip George & Dragonette – ‘Feel This Way’”

Album review: Eric Prydz – Opus

A decade in the making, Prydz’ debut LP calls on ’80s synthpop and his famous progressive house for a sparkling journey through his abilities.

Originally published in The Edge

It was almost a dozen years ago that Eric Prydz almost displaced then-Prime Minister Tony Blair from his rowing machine with some rather provocative aerobics. 2004 single ‘Call On Me,’ a Stevie Winwood sample, spent five weeks at the top of the UK charts and, aged 7 and still only understanding music through the prism of ITV’s Saturday morning compendium CD:UK, Prydz’ self-maligned track served as my vulgar introduction to house music. By the time ‘Pjanoo’ was beaten to Number 1 by only Katy Perry four years later, an appreciation for the discipline and the man in particular had begun to properly gestate.

Numerous releases under countless guises later, including a three disc compilation under his dancefloor-centric alias Pryda in 2012, Prydz has at last put an album out under his own name. Opus requires patience, lasting beyond two hours, however the evident influences from the synth-pop upon which he feasted in his youth prevents it from feeling tedious. Continue reading “Album review: Eric Prydz – Opus”

Single review: ODESZA feat. Zyra – ‘It’s Only’

Like the eye of a storm, vengeful lyricism and serene instrumentation combine for ODESZA’s incredible (and surely inevitable) second LP swansong.

Originally published in The Edge

Few in the electronic world can match ODESZA when it comes to atmospheric, emotional production. In 2014 the Seattle duo of Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight put out their second record In Return, a luscious and bewildering journey touching on hip-hop, pop, and orchestral beauty that continues to unveil further nuances even after dozens of listens, defying the prevalent disposability of much of the genre. Continue reading “Single review: ODESZA feat. Zyra – ‘It’s Only’”

Single review: Rat Boy – ‘Move’

Rat Boy’s latest fits its titular bill, but vocal lethargy extinguishes any fulfilment.

Originally published in The Edge

Rat Boy‘s apparent apathy to all that is going on around him grows increasingly. Perhaps it is purely the facade of a young songwriter poised to explode with a lackadaisical Jamie T impression and a dodgy MP3 of some Beastie Boys record. New single ‘Move,’ however, suggests some real difficulties in transferring potential “NRG” into a consistent recorded package for a more discerning crowd. Continue reading “Single review: Rat Boy – ‘Move’”

Album review: Justin Bieber – Purpose

It’s not horrendous, honest.

Originally published for The Edge’s album of the year countdown

Justin Bieber had it made. After a career as an irritating tween catnip saw him sell over 40 million records in the US and amass more Twitter followers than anyone but Katy Perry, he began the stereotypical descent into chaos that befalls many a young celebrity. He was getting arrested for egging neighbours and druggedly driving Lamborghinis. The rails he’d fallen off were bespoke, but rapidly fading away. 2015 changed that. Continue reading “Album review: Justin Bieber – Purpose”

Single review: LCD Soundsystem – ‘Christmas Will Break Your Heart’

A Christmas miracle from Murphy’s band of bittersweet gloom.

Originally published in The Edge

A flash snowstorm of an LCD Soundsystem return appeared in our Christmas stockings, almost five years after the parting of ways. As James Murphy and the band rip through the festive charade with their typical incisive honesty and schadenfreude-inducing depression poetry eight years in the making, the adage of absence making the heart grow fonder proves itself. Trimmed from 75 lines to “keep the suicide rate in check,” ‘Christmas Will Break Your Heart’ serves as a fitting extension to their previous trembling finale. Continue reading “Single review: LCD Soundsystem – ‘Christmas Will Break Your Heart’”

Single review: Louisa Johnson – ‘Forever Young’

The X Factor conveyor belt comes back around with a Bob Dylan cover that requires patience and misplaced dedication.

Originally published in The Edge

Though the rest of the non-Adele world has moved on, The X Factor seems determined to churn out merchants of meandering vanilla pop. Bob Dylan’s 1974 track ‘Forever Young’ is the latest song with connotations of youthful exuberance and defiance of adversity to receive an agonising balladisation for the festive charts, as 17-year-old Louisa Johnson warbles on the subject of fulfilling dreams and growing up and all that nonsense, with the word “may” appearing every 10 seconds and the title repeated so often it loses meaning. Continue reading “Single review: Louisa Johnson – ‘Forever Young’”

Album review: SOPHIE – Product

Beginning and ending with the only two tracks worth listening to, SOPHIE’s collection of singles leaves more than just an unpleasant ringing behind.

Originally published in The Edge

To celebrate Black Friday, SOPHIE, the foremost enigma of electronic pop who once described his genre as ‘advertising’, has released debut album Product in formats ranging from CD to…silicon thing. The London-based producer, who was last heard soundtracking a McDonald’s commercial (‘LEMONADE’) and collaborating with Madonna and Diplo (‘Bitch I’m Madonna’), made a pseudonym for himself in 2013 when his rather unique approach to the fundamentals of sound production, drowned in a sickly sweet marinade, surfaced through Glaswegian label Numbers. Continue reading “Album review: SOPHIE – Product”

Single review: Coldplay – ‘Adventure Of A Lifetime’

The dawn after the night of Ghost Stories, Adventure Of A Lifetime is an enticing sniff of Coldplay’s happiest album yet.

Originally published in The Edge

Where did Coldplay go after Ghost Stories? Back to the studio to make their happiest album yet, apparently. After teasers in the tube, our first taste of A Head Full Of Dreams comes in the shape of ‘Adventure Of A Lifetime’, where Chris Martin oozes swagger with surprising aplomb. Continue reading “Single review: Coldplay – ‘Adventure Of A Lifetime’”