The Best Recent Music Writing – Post-It Note Edition

The best recent music writing I’ve seen this last week, featuring Rob Mitchum slapping Noel Gallagher, Ian Gittins destroying Pixie Lott, Sam Wolfson calling us all old and irrelevant, Sean Moeller reminding us all to calm the fuck down, and everyone in the world trying to think of different ways to call Tom Waits weird.

 

“[A] listener can forgive a lot of corniness, even as Noel tests the limits. At this point, it’s almost endearing that he earnestly sees no problem starting a song with the lyric, “Hot time/ Summer in the city,” and thinks the clunky “(I Wanna Live in a Dream in My) Record Machine” is an acceptable song title and hook. But the latter track also shows Gallagher can still tickle anyone who once took the kind of soaring-orchestra-and-guitar-solo bridge (think Slash emerging from a pool of water in the rain) seriously. If the emotional power of anthemic rock is quickly draining, Gallagher remains among the best conductors of the fumes.”

Rob Mitchum damns with faint praise in his review of High Flying Birds’ eponymous debut LP (Pitchfork 18 Oct ‘11)

 

“[Pixie Lott] must be nervously aware of the fate of another British pop siren, Duffy, who saw her debut album go multi-platinum and scoop a Grammy, before its followup flopped so badly that she is now taking a break from music. Lott is likely to escape that fate: Young Foolish Happy is a slick selection of R&B-pop nuggets and sophisticated ballads whose rave-pop lead single, All About Tonight, hit No 1 earlier this month.

Nevertheless, tonight’s show makes it painfully clear that while the industrious Lott ticks many basic pop-star boxes – voice, songcraft, looks, charisma – she has the originality and soul of a Post-It note.”

Ian Gittins reviews Pixie Lott live at London’s Forum, and tries valiantly to both stay balanced and hold back the contempt. Fails badly, scores highly. (The Guardian, 20 Oct ‘11)

 

“The Stone Roses are my least favourite group out of the re-formed bands of recent years. To some they may be the euphoric soundtrack to a first pilled-up shag in a nightclub toilet. To me, they are Primal Scream in need of editing; a band with a couple of nice songs that go on too long. Their real legacy is this huge show on an island that wasn’t an island that everyone who was there says sounded awful. They are a live band most famous for being shit live.”

- Sam Wolfson kills it stone dead. (The Guardian, 19 Oct ‘11)

 

“They are the easy rides that friends and lovers take when they’ve got nowhere to be in a hurry”

- Sean Moeller veers dangerously into “calm down, dearest” territory, but pulls it right back out of the fire with this awesome line about songs by Vetiver, who’ve recorded a particularly warming session over at Daytrotter. Daytrotter, 20 Oct ‘11

 

Also, as a special treat, a selection of the more colourful language inspired by the new (awesome) Tom Waits album, Bad As Me, including Mischa Pearlman’s classic troll reference:

 

“An American Shane MacGowan with a heavy cold after a night spent in a grave”

Dave Simpson, The Guardian 21 Oct ‘11

 

“A man collecting rusty old wrecks of vintage American music and getting them to clatter-bang back to life — untaxed, uninsured and possibly with a corpse left rotting in the boot”

Helen Brown, The Telegraph 20 Oct ‘11

 

“Glimmers darkly with a world weariness bordering on disgust”

Chris Power, BBC Music, 19 Oct ‘11

 

“Waits is the dark man outside.”

Iann Robinson, CraveOnline, 18 Oct ‘11

 

“As usual, everything comes layered in rust and reeking of residue”

Jim Farber, New York Daily News, 18 Oct ‘11

 

“It’s almost as if the classic Glenn Miller parade-ground swing had been updated to something hellish and acid-fried and supremely pissed-off”

Andy Gill, The Independent, 18 Oct ‘11

 

“Flitting between the forlorn, drunken, jazz-infused [and] bombastic, vaguely terrifying, troll-like stomping”

Mischa Pearlman, Clash, 19 Oct ‘11