Billy Ruffian - Death of a Band (demo)
This is good stuff, very rough, but very inventive and showing a lot of potential future promise. Songs that are self aware of the ridiculousness and trials and tribulations of the music business have always been a winner and this demo deals with this and other issues admirably, The Death of a band due to constant touring and lack of money, teen scenesters and troublesome girlfriends. Lyrical genius over a solid wall of music, it needs work but watch this space, as Billy Ruffian will be at the front of the ever-growing wave of ‘anti-scene’ bands…
An odd choice for a single, quite slow, dark and fairly bitter lyrics, not exactly something to set the dance floors across the land alight. The B-side is in a similar vein both tracks are awash with brooding, building melodies, always restricted, always maintaining tension that never quite releases, haunting harmonies and waves of reverb soaked instruments adding to the melancholic majesty of it all.
Bonnie Prince Billy, William Higham, Palace Music… is an artist who is something of a cult genius to has fans and admirers, but to outsiders, someone who’s appeal has always been hard to fully understand and comprehend, this album has done something to address that opinion. The songs are all fairly similar, a country / folk crossover, sparse, usually just guitar and vocals, occasionally an accompanying percussionist, instrument or vocal. Lyrically Bonnie Prince Billy Is typically fairly downbeat, and if not, then he sings lamenting love songs, even though his delivery promises lyrical brilliance generally his lyrics are fairly uninspiring, non-sensical and whimsical. That said 'The Letting Go' is a calming album to listen to, filling you with an inner peace, an album to escape the world to. Bonnie Prince Billy, a genius? No, but this is a fine album.
I try to avoid mentioning other artist’s names as much as possible in reviews, but after just reviewing the new Bonnie Prince Billy album the similarity in style is so close I had to check I was listening to the right CD on several occasions. To be fair James Yorkston’s voice is different and there’s less of a country influence on his music, but melodically the songs are in the same melancholic, downbeat, lamenting vein played over a bed of gentle acoustic guitar and occasional accompaniment. There’s more of a British feel to this album, especially on ‘Woozy with Cider’, a spoken word track that sums up British life and a musicians life beautifully, not that you would want an entire album of tracks like this, but it shows a more interesting side to James’s work and the promise of more to come.
I love Awwblot? They’re an excellent live band and their last EP had some of the best dance floor fillers I’ve heard for a while… Which is why I don’t understand this release. There’s one recorded track, which isn’t one of their best, and two live tracks, which aren’t some of their best either. The lyrics are repetitive and the music doesn’t show off their incredibly tight, catchy and cleverly arranged pop tunes at all. Don’t lose your way so early boys and girls…
(single)
It’s always hard to judge a band on one track, but on the basis of this one I’d like to reiterate a statement to VWF and many, many other bands I have been making fairly frequently over the past few months… Please, please, please no more disco beats for the hell of it! Yes they make people dance, but there are other ways to do that. I say this in relation to VWF because they sound like a band who’d rather be playing some sort of ska/ rock-riffage crossover, and whilst that might not be 100% original either, follow what is right for you, not what the scene is telling you to do.
Ye Gods, why are people still making, releasing or most crucially sending people like me such middle of the road Funk-Soul Ballads?! To be more constructive, it’s well played, catchy and well structured songs, but sounds like late 70’s pop music. Chiming vibraphones, a singer who’s probably clicking his fingers whilst singing, string backings and falsetto middle eights. If you like this sort of thing then I’m sure it’s great, but sadly the Beauty room are not my musical cup of tea at all.
All reviews by Chris
Chinchilla
www.chinchilla-music.co.uk
