The Sound of Arrows – Voyage

21 November 2011

The Sound Of Arrows - Voyage

First things first: by a large margin, this is the best pop album of the year. I don’t usually sum up my reviews so early into writing them, but I thought it’d be better for me to make that perfectly clear as soon as I could. I’ve lost count of the amount of times the words ‘electro-pop’ and ‘Swedish’ have appeared in the same sentence in a new music feature this year, but Voyage destroys all the competition. None of their compatriots are doing their electro-pop thing nearly as well as The Sound of Arrows (facebook/twitter).

What makes Voyage immediately stand out from the crowd is that it is not the clichéd ‘thrown-together’ debut album. This record is a complete, flowing piece of work, displaying both the widescreen qualities of film music and hard-hitting lyrical themes. This album is literally an escapist pop record, detailing, as it does, the journey of two people who decide to run away from the lives they have and recreate themselves.

I feel like I should mention that this album has resonated strongly with me on a personal level, but I’m going to get away from that for a moment and say that these eleven songs work just as well as separate entities. There is a narrative thread running through the record, but that’s also reflected in how Voyage is structured. The motif that acts as a prelude to Into the Clouds resurfaces in Lost City, and Magic and The Longest Ever Dream are, lyrically speaking, two sides of the same coin.

Without a doubt, this is the single most euphoric album I’ve heard this year. It’s managed to earn a place in my heart for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that it displays songcraft that other groups of this ilk would kill for; even Conquest, which I think is the weakest (relatively speaking) song on the album, is still a cut above its competitors. With songs like the dazzling Wonders, the spine-tinglingly epic There Is Still Hope, and Nova, which can accurately be described as ‘absolutely massive’, The Sound of Arrows set themselves exceptionally high standards that they did an extremely good job of maintaining.

Broadly speaking, this is all killer and no filler. This Stockholm-based duo have put a startling amount of thought and effort into their debut, and while their borderline-relentless positivity will not be everyone (the light contained in the melodies is brought into contrast by a degree of darkness in the lyrics), I dare say that if you can’t get some sort of enjoyment out of an album as life-affirming as this, you’re a curmudgeon. At the very least, it’ll make you feel something, and albums that provoke and emotive response from the listener are to be cherished, especially when they are as downright amazing as this one.

Voyage was released on November 7th through Skies Above

[BUY] The Sound Of Arrows – Voyage @ Amazon | Piccadilly | iTunes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK0_PVaF8Pg

The Sound Of Arrows – Wonders
Brightside (The Sound of Arrows Remix) by The Knocks

PopJustice have got the full album stream.

The Juliets – Perfect Season

By: Carrow

19 November 2011

In: News & Leaks, Reviews

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The Juliets - Perfect Season
There are very few album covers around nowadays that are adorned with an invitation. The Juliets (facebook/twitter) make sure to set out their stall from the off with ‘stay as long as you like’, because even before the first song on Perfect Season is finished, it’s clear that the listener is faced with an album so enjoyable that they’ll be ‘staying’ for quite a while.

The Michigan band’s new album is their second, and I can’t imagine there are very many people out there who will fail to be charmed by their classical-tinged, orchestral pop sound. Loon and Heart in Heart open proceedings with a dramatic flair that is all their own, chock-full of hooks and insistent melodies but never once becoming too busy or convoluted. Releasing an album full of songs like that, this late in the year, can only be called something of a masterstroke, because they will help to ward off the winter for a while longer, and I’m sure we can all appreciate that.

All twelve songs on Perfect Season are musically accomplished, something brought into contrast by frontman Jeremy Freer’s easy-going lyrical style. All the elements present on the album – soaring and swooping strings, an extremely tight rhythm section, and, every now and then, some tinkling piano (as showcased on Hey Stars and Only You) – gel with each other to great effect.

The classical overtones evident on Perfect Season become more prominent on the second half of the album, with the piano-led instrumental The Lost Memory sounding it could have been plucked straight from the 19th century, such is the Romantic-era feel that it radiates. It stands out on the album, not because it manages to stick out like a sore thumb, but because it’s an unquestionably beautiful listen, and one of the finest things I’ve heard all year.

Not many bands would dare to place a piece like that right next to a pure pop song the likes of It’s Simple, but the two work extremely well together. I would in fact go as far to say that, on their own, the pair manage to sum up Perfect Season better than I ever could: the album is pleasingly diverse (you wouldn’t think Why Should I? could fit into a record like this, but it reveals itself as one of the record’s highlights over time), and is one of the most enjoyable I’ve heard in quite some time. This band know exactly what they want to be, and are displaying themselves in a manner that is audacious and extremely refreshing.

[BUY]The Juliets – Perfect Season

Loon
Heart In Heart by The 405
A Perfect Season by The 405
(Thanks to The 405 for the streams)

We Are Augustines – Book of James

By: Carrow

8 November 2011

In: News & Leaks

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We Are Augustines

Every so often, a song, or an album, comes along that’s so good it just completely stops you in its tracks. That the best discovery of 2011 for me was The Antlers’ Hospice says a lot about what I appreciate the most in music; I was almost two years late, but the intensity of the music and lyrics left me completely stunned. In a matter of months, it has become my favourite album of all time.

Its harrowing backstory does not need to be rehashed here, but in different ways I see parallels between Hospice and We Are Augustines (facebook/twitter) Rise Ye Sunken Ships, and we’re not talking about superficial ones like both bands being based in Brooklyn. The former is a document of an abusive relationship played out through the analogy of the relationship between a hospice worker and Sylvia, a terminally-ill patient; the latter, a record that details WAA frontman Billy McCarthy’s hard times as he lost both his mother and brother, the two mentally ill, the former a drug addict, to suicide.

Both albums were born out of an intensely emotional experience, and I get the feeling that somehow, Book of James, its title a biblical reference, but also commemorating Billy’s brother, is merely the tip of the iceberg. UK fans (those who haven’t imported the album already, at least) will have to wait until March 5th 2012 to experience Rise Ye Sunken Ships in its entirety, but the indications are extremely promising, because Book of James is an absolute knockout. Sounding like something akin to darker Fanfarlo material, it’s as musically uplifting as emotionally devastating, tackling the tough subjects of mental illness and homelessness and resulting in something that is a uniquely compelling song. We Are Augustines have already been picking up plenty of plaudits in States, and it sounds like they’ll receive further acclaim over here when the album is unveiled.

[IMPORT] We Are Augustines – Rise Ye Sunken Ships

Book Of James by We Are Augustines