NOVI is here to Make A Scene

6 Aug

NOVI

Back in 2011 when Los Angeles-based pop singer Novi released her debut EP Now I’m Here she raised eyebrows with her brazen, imprecation-filled single “Blackbirds.” Underneath the ribald lyric, though, was an artist ready to break out. NOVI, the moniker of Carolyne Neuman, is no stranger to success – her first release, “All the Way” was featured on One Tree Hill – but with the forthcoming release of her second EP Now I’m There I think it is about time that the country started learning more about NOVI.

Remember when Florence and the Machine first released “Kiss with a Fist” in 2008. The debut single went on to foreshadow the success of the band. I mention this track because I believe its brash nature best reflects NOVI. NOVI reminds me of a young Florence Welch – unconventional, fearless, and skilled. Those are three qualities that are particularly necessary if you want to succeed in the industry.

Now, NOVI’s music is different from Florence’s music. While Florence – besides from “Kiss With a Fist” – focuses on creating an ethereal atmosphere with her songs, NOVI mixes an in-your-face attitude with a touch of Lana Del Rey’s sun-soaked voice. The music itself covers the spectrum of effervescent and blunt to emotion-saturated and harmonious. One thing remains constant in all of NOVI’s music – it is good. Yes, this seems rather simplistic – especially in a review – but the music is diverse, stimulating, and, well, good. Let’s put it this way – once you listen to a track you want to continue exploring the esoteric world of NOVI. Let’s listen to two tracks from the new EP.

“Whisky and FireFlies” begins with an infectious whistle opening – much like “Good Life” by OneRepublic – and that bleeds into NOVI’s verse – which almost acts as a singing rap. The percussion carries the song into a Florence-like chorus. NOVI’s voice is deceptively good. The vocal play in the song is skillful.

“Make A Scene,” though, is where I see true star quality. While “Whisky and FireFlies” is a nice song, “Make a Scene” is a powerhouse – a true force that has mainstream and Indie attraction. The beat is ridiculous. The listener is fully drawn into the song from the start and NOVI helps suck the listener further into the piece with her eclectic vocal. The hook is potent. Featuring a Mika-like instrumental rise, the chorus is the song’s core. This is a 2:45 bundle of goodness, and, if it is any indication of NOVI’s future, much like Florence, it looks very bright.

 

Keep in tune with NOVI – Website, Facebook, Twitter

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American Idiot – Gone But Not Forgotten

2 Aug

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“Can you hear the sound of hysteria? The subliminal mind fuck America.”

American Idiot dates very badly. It screams of 2003, when Americans were beginning to question the War on Terror and the anti-Iraq movement was in full swing. Its lyrics are an anti-Bush hymn. However it wasn’t until recently that I realised it was 10 years since it actually came out. This meant it was an entire decade since I first bought (or more accurately borrowed from a friend and didn’t give back) my first CD. Obviously, I had to go back and see how it stood up. The surprising answer is very well.

At its heart, it was a concept album exploring the journey of a character called Jesus of Suburbia, a messiah for the anti-establishment movement. He experiences the ups and downs of the American Dream before returning home. It has such a clear narrative that it was even turned into a successful musical of the same name.

It was surprisingly lyrically complex and ambitious. For a stoner punk-rock group who often wrote about masturbation, teen culture and drug use, a political epic was unheard of. By all accounts, the political themes arose by accident. The band were stringing short, 30-second songs together and happened to like the result. They did it again and these became the epic 7-minute songs Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming that bookend the album’s narrative, a far cry from their usual short, catchy garage-pop songs. Filling in the blanks, the band created a complex story that explored the themes of rage versus love; blind, destruction-filled rebellion or commitment to your beliefs and ethics.

The title song American Idiot also became a surprise hit, and why not? Besides its angry attack on the state of the country in 2003, it’s a rollicking good rock song. Unlike their follow-up album, which packed in as many meaningless buzzwords as possible, the lyrics were a sharp criticism of the air of paranoia and propaganda that had followed 9/11. I didn’t understand all of the lyrics when I first heard it but it still struck a chord with me. It’s a political ‘fuck you’ the Sex Pistols would have been proud of.

And then there’s that song, which every emo/punk of a certain age knows – Wake Me Up When September Ends. Writing about a time shortly after his father’s death, Armstrong captures the desire to disconnect yourself from the world. It was an emotional ballad that was deeply personal and reminded the world the band had a softer side.

Although the band’s recent hattrick of albums Uno, Dos and Tre flopped, this politically charged album will stand the test of time. With the ambivalence the current NSA revelations are receiving, it’s good to look back to a time when Green Day brought political rebellion into the mainstream, They made it cool to care and that’s no easy these days.

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Fip Fok Warriors – CoCo and the Butterfields

30 Jul

Warriors

 

 

It should come to no surprise that Coco and the Butterfields is from Canterbury, a historic English cathedral city; the band’s music is downright regal. As the photograph (an eclectic amalgam of Pocahontas and Braveheart) above suggests, the band combines traditional English pop with pastoral folk and gritty hip/hop to create a tremendous sound that has not only sparked its own derivative genre (“Fip Fok” – folk/pop/hip-hop) but also has expanded the ears of listeners while sucking them into an infectious sound. What? Did I look into the picture too much?

It should go without repeating that I am a big fan of what Coco and the Butterfields is creating, but, heck, I’m going to bedizen the group with flashy adornments of praise. The music is fresh and original. Original is an understatement. The five-piece band combines the folk prowess of Micah Hyson (double bass) and Rob Wicks (banjo) with the filthy and fresh beatbox stylings of Jamie Smith. Folk and beatbox? It takes a rare breed of band to pull off that stunt successfully. Just take a listen to the band’s glorious cover of “Just a Dream” by Nelly. It is unconventional (almost humorous in its musical absurdity), but after the initial shock sets in, it is not difficult to imagine the song being a Coco original. This is the mark of a great band.

“Warriors” takes effervescent to a new level. The music is off-the-bubbly-charts. If you do not have the sudden urge to get up, jump up and down, and sing along to the track than something must be terribly wrong with you. In a style similar to fellow countrymen Skinny Lister, Coco and the Butterfields combine a traditional folk instrumental with fresh elements. “Warriors,” though, maintains a unique theatrical feel that creates a big-screen appeal. It also maintains a dangerous contagiousness that invokes constant repetition of the song…seriously. The song is a gem. This band needs to make its way to the Big Apple, so I can hear the song live – yes, I’m selfish. Heck of a song from one heck of a band.

Get on the Coco and the Butterfields train. Follow the band on its Website, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

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The Suburbs – Arcade Fire

26 Jul

It was announced this week that Arcade Fire have completed work on their forth albums. Details are sadly short on the ground, but it will be the follow-up to The Suburbs, one of the most critically-acclaimed and sadly forgotten albums of the last few years.

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Whereas their classic 2004 album Funeral was a bombastic ode to childhood, the Suburbs saw the band looking back at their own adolescence through the prism of the places where members Win and Will Butler grew up, the suburbs of Texas. The first few songs capture the uncertainty and boredom of being a teenager in a world ruled by adults, while still managing to create a radio hit in Ready to Start. There’s a heavy sense of nostalgia weighing down on them, a childhood that’s been irreversibly lost.

From there, the album skips on a couple of years. The children – friends, siblings, lovers? – of the early chapters have grown up and are returning home after ‘the markets crashed’ in 2008. The only thing worse than yearning for your youth is having your illusions about it shattered, but that’s what happens. The climax as the album is a two part song called Sprawl. The first one is a mournful, barely musical dirge in which the protagonist attempts to find his old home in the dark and fails, while in the second Win Butler’s wife Régine Chassagne gets to display her vocal talents in an ABBA-inspired track about the daily 9-5 grinding you down. The contrast beautifully sums up the album’s complex and mature themes.

There are a dozen more things I could rave about, from the constant threat of an apocalyptic war that hangs over the early tracks, the clever symbolism of light and darkness throughout or the way it manages to make big statements without ever coming off as pretentious. After the emotionally barren music that we are so often offered nowadays, an album that asks so many personal questions about you comes as a shock.

Full disclosure – it may not be the genre-defining masterpiece I imagine it to be. It may just be the tales of leaving your childhood home struck a chord with me at a time when I was beginning university, leaving a permanent imprint, but that’s exactly what good music should do. It should say the things you can’t and explain the world to you.

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The Musical Beauty of Beneath Your Beautiful

25 Jul

Labrinth

I had heard “Beneath Your Beautiful” by Labrinth and Emeli Sandé in passing prior to listening to it closely for the first time yesterday. In small pieces of the song, I was able to recognize a pleasant piano piece mixed with a melodious vocal…and that’s about it. While I am partially ashamed to admit it, my first true listen to the song came at the behest of the America’s Got Talent results show on Wednesday night – and, ironically as it is, the musicians who performed it on the show were (and still very much are) from the UK.

“Beneath Your Beautiful” is the sixth single released from Labrinth’s debut album Electronic Earth. Labrinth is the stage name of English singer-songwriter Timothy McKenzie. While proficient in numerous instruments and keen to a R&B/Pop sound, Labrinth’s debut release focused much attention to a unique electronica blend. “Beneath Your Beautiful,” which features the wonderful voice of Emeli Sandé – a Scottish recording artist – is a more traditional piano ballad, although it does feature some well-placed electronic elements.

To be honest, this song has so many elements that strike a chord with me. Yes, I just went there with a terrible music joke! The opening piano riff is candid and simple. It is unbridled musical pulchritude (I’m a sucker for piano, I know). Labrinth’s vocal features a contained emotionality that is refreshing. The man has a tremendous voice, and he is not afraid to use his pipes when the time is right. But, while the voice is excellent, it is tender, and this helps establish its candor. The song adds strings and percussion when Sandé begins to sing, and she carries the verse perfectly. The harmony established by both voices is dulcet. It’s one hell of a song. And…apparently more than 50 million people agree on YouTube.

Note: The grammar mistake in the title was a jab at grammar nuts by Labrinth – or just a sneaky way of covering up a mistake – :). Initially, I took it to mean that the singer wants to see beneath the beautiful (metaphorically) and into the soul of his/her lover (I’m cheeky like that).

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