'Contra'

Vampire Weekend have finally released ‘Contra’ and the follow up to one of the best debuts of recent times comes with a hefty load of expectation and anticipation.

After a decade in which bands seemed only able to pull off a great debut and not a lot else (See my previous article on that here), our hope for a great follow up to kick off this brave new decade is strong.

After the unlikely success story of their debut in which they created a sound that was genuinely fresh in the current mainstream, the most pertinent questions surrounding their second album seemed to be whether they could make another record that sounded as fresh or would they stick by their tried and tested formula?

Well the answer is somewhere in between. The elements that made their debut great are still present; they just have to make room for some ambitious new ideas. The balance between the two is what makes this album a success.

The simple indie-pop fun of their hit ‘A-Punk’ can be found again on first single ‘Cousins’ and ‘Holiday’. But the slower serious side hinted at on their debuts closer ‘The Kid’s Don’t Stand A Chance’ is given more prominence and developed in ‘Taxi Cab’ and ‘I Think Ur A Contra’.

The addictive album opener ‘Horchata’ is a showcase of what the band does best. Cryptic and intelligent lyrics over a mish-mash of sounds. Thudding African drums, electronic sounds, wooden percussion and ‘M79-esque’ violins. It shouldn’t all fit together, but it does, and it’s ingenious. And this is the case in almost every song.

Of course, it does make it hard to label. The indie and afro-pop that made up their debut have been joined by more electronic sounds and samples. They even manage to throw in some frantic auto-tune vocals on ‘California English’. The list of who played what instrument on what track inside the cover is quite hefty to say the least.

The highpoints of the album are ‘Run’ and ‘Giving Up The Gun’, true signs of a band maturing and growing in confidence, with a rich sound that will easily fill the arenas that the band will soon be playing in.

Whilst some have labelled them pretentious and accused them of stealing sounds for their debut, they have stuck to their guns on this follow up and even managed to combine more influences to make something new and different, which is pretty much all that can be asked of musicians now that originality is rare.

Of course you could just ignore all that and enjoy this album simply for the lovely summer sound it has, like its predecessor, and it may just remind you what sunshine is like, something we here in the UK have all long since forgotten.

The album is currently being streamed here

Tim Marklew
 

Is This It? An appropriate question for some of the bands on the list.

NME have revealed their Top 100 Greatest Albums of the past decade and as most of these lists do, it makes for interesting reading. Obviously these lists can’t satisfy everyone, an endless debate on what should and shouldn’t have appeared is the last thing I want to start with this article.

The most striking thing I found in reading through the list is the number of bands that peaked with their first release and have subsequently failed to reach the same heights again. Of course commercially some of these bands have grown massively, but critically they haven’t grown much at all.

The Top 10 features no less than 7 debut albums. The top 50 features 18, nearly 40%. This seems pretty high, which on one hand is good. It’s great that modern bands hit the ground running, creating instant classics at the first time of asking. However, looking at the bigger picture, it’s saddening how many bands never seem to reproduce the same quality on later albums.

This raises many questions. The biggest perhaps being, are the bands of the Noughties less talented than the bands of previous decades? They can have years to write and hone the early songs that will make up their debut, but when it comes to writing a follow up album within several years, along with touring and record company pressure, the quality seems to drop. Time constraints can’t really be a factor as it’s no secret most bands release a lot less material than bands of the past. On average a band will release a new album every two or so years. It’s not really fair comparing anyone with Bob Dylan but in his sixties heyday he released 11 albums in 8 years, from his debut in 1962 to 1970.

Focussing only on the Top 50 for a minute and looking a bit deeper, there are 6 artists with 2 albums featured. Apart from the 2 longer established bands, Radiohead and The White Stripes, the 4 other bands all have their debut album in the Top 10. Their follow up albums all appear further down the list sure, but they’re nowhere near their predecessors.

Some of the decades biggest new bands such as The Strokes, Bloc Party, Kings of Leon and Arctic Monkeys all grace the Top 100 with their critically acclaimed debuts, but see none of their subsequent releases get a mention. Are these bands still riding the success of their debut albums or have they been harshly treated? Does releasing a blinding debut put a potential curse on the rest of your career?

Lastly, whilst I’m not going to argue against anything on the list, I would like to applaud NME on some of their surprise choices. At The Drive-In, Capdown, Brand New and The Maccabees all thoroughly deserved their place in the Top 100.

Tim Marklew

The Dead Weather

The band ripped through every song from their debut ‘Horehound’ in a whirlwind of bluesy licks and feedback that lasted just over an hour. There are bands that need crowd interaction, and those that don’t. This band let their music do the talking.

On stage they are a joy to behold. Performing with a confidence and swagger of a band that have been together for years instead of months.  Alison Mosshart is even more unhinged than she is with The Kills, she seems almost possessed on stage, letting the music thrash and writhe her body in all manner of unnatural positions yet never missing a single word or note, only calming down when strapping on her Bo Diddley style guitar. Jack White plays the drums like a kid on Christmas day, hitting as hard and fast as his arms can manage. Flanking them ‘Little’ Jack Lawrence and Dean Fertita provide the stability, fusing blues with garage rock through a combination of their instruments.

High points included the near perfect opener ’60 Feet Tall’, a brooding ‘So Far From Your Weapon’ and extended closer ‘Treat Me Like Your Mother’ which saw a wave of crowd surfing and moshing.

Whilst at their first UK gig in Kentish Town in July Jack White only stepped out from behind his kit for one song, last night he strapped on his guitar for three songs. And it may be cliché, but the highlight of the gig was the performance of ‘Will There Be Enough Water?’ with Jack on lead guitar.

This song was the highlight at that first gig and unfortunately the album version failed to live up to expectations, proving to be a much tamer version. However, when performed live this song is a beast. With Little Jack stepping behind the kit and proving himself a more than capable drummer, Jack White produced some incendiary solos and some intense mic sharing with Mosshart. The two have a chemistry on stage nearly at the level of Mosshart and her Kills bandmate Jamie Hince, which is surprising after such a short time together.

It is the ease and speed with which this band has formed that is the most amazing thing about them. In an age when some bands are satisfied with only releasing material every few years, these like-minded musicians have gone from relative strangers to a modern supergroup in just a matter of months through their shared love of making music.

The smiles on their faces when lining up for a bow at the end as feedback still screamed from the speakers says all you need to know about this band. They love what they do, and so do we.

Check out some live videos of The Dead Weather here

Tim Marklew

Sellaband

Sellaband is a service trying to change the way the music industry works from much earlier on in the whole process. It’s pretty simple. Artists who are looking for financial support for a ‘Musical Project’, be it an album, EP or tour, can upload their music to the website. Then the site’s users can browse the music available and become a fan of the artists. Up to there it seems pretty similar to MySpace however the twist is coming.

The service allows fans to buy ‘Part’ of a project, so to speak. Effectively, if you like an artist you can fund their project. ‘Parts’ go for $10 apiece and when an act reaches either $50,000 (or $100,ooo depending on their own ambition it seems) the artist can access this money to hire producers, studios, A&R and everything needed to realize their project.

At any point until the total has been reached a user can have their money returned to them if they wish. However, if an artist you have supported reaches their target and makes an album, you get a completely unique limited edition of it, as well as other incentives (downloads, merch etc.)

Sellaband has been active for three years so it isn’t exactly new. The service claims to have seen users invest over $3million so far, leading to 34 albums being released through it; it would be fair to say that none of these albums have achieved mainstream success.

Things could be about to change though with the announcement that Public Enemy, a band that has released over ten albums including probably the most acclaimed Hip-Hop album of all time, will use the service to fund and record their next album. The first established act to gamble with the service, it could go either way.

On the one hand a band such as Public Enemy could easily get a record deal or even fund their own album, so there’s a question over whether people will be willing to part with their money. On the other, the chance to receive a unique copy of an album will greatly appeal to diehard fans.

When it comes to the service in general, file-sharing has taught us nothing if not that many people prefer to pay nothing for music; no matter how much they may like it. If people are unwilling to pay a tenner for a CD they can have instantly in their hand or on their computer, will people really be willing to part with their money for a CD they may never receive?

The funding of the Public Enemy album will be a measure of how the service could be utilized by other mainstream acts, if the album is funded and released fairly quickly, surely others will wish to join the pioneering. If it fails to materialize however, it could prove to be both the peak and the trough of the website.

Tim Marklew

Photograph: PA

Her victory was met with shock, a lot of angry message board posting and questions over why exactly her album had won. Nevertheless it was widely accepted that she would benefit from some exposure that the other nominees didn’t need and who could begrudge her that after her difficult past.

 However, the first night of her current UK tour in Sheffield on Saturday night drew an audience of between 50 and 100. I wasn’t at the gig but several reviewers have painted it as quite a bleak and awkward affair with a clearly embarrassed Debelle trying to put on a brave face despite the lack of people.

Her album peaked at 65 the week after the awards and is now residing outside the top 100, with less than 6000 albums reportedly having been sold in total. Now while sales figures don’t reflect the quality of an album, these figures aren’t exactly the kind you would associate with the supposed best alternative album of the past year.

This is as embarrassing for the Mercury as it is for Debelle, perhaps even more so. Those who labelled her album unworthy of winning and claimed the judges were wrong will point to these things as proof. The more important question this brings up is what exactly the point of the Mercury Prize is if it can’t even raise the profile of the winning artist.

Why has this happened we can ask? Female Hip-Hop isn’t the easiest music to sell (see Miss Dynamite who also won the Mercury in 2002), so have the Mercury judges become overconfident in their ability to award mainstream success to whom they deem worthy? Does this just go to show how big the gulf is between critics and fans these days?

The judging panel this year consisted of major magazine editors, newspaper critics, radio DJ’s, radio music managers and a classical conductor. Are we no longer accepting being told what to like by even the upper echelons of music criticism?

The Mercury is in a precarious place, when the award is given to a mainstream act, people argue it isn’t serving its purpose, but if people are also no longer willing to like any obscure act they thrust upon us, where can it go from here? How many more bad decisions can they make before the award loses all of its credibility?

This article has far more questions than answers but it’s safe to say that both Speech Debelle’s career and next year’s awards will be interesting to follow.

Tim Marklew

 www.myspace.com/speechdebellemusic