Nuggets - 07 May 2008

Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
By Jon Fletcher
Croak and strum: the foundations of this album are powerfully simple. The lyrics may be barely decipherable, but their sound conveys a deep, irrevocable warmth. Scratched, swarming chords warp and wane in the background while southern harmonies swell and fade. Recorded on decaying equipment, the missplaced clunks and scrapes that permeate this album only add to the sense that Bon Iver (real name Justin Vernon) has managed to replace the usual technical barriers between artist and listener with a more direct connection. At times it’s as though he’s broken into your front room, bringing with him a wash of aural comfort; the sound of being generously and simply content.

Goldfinger – Hello Destiny…
By Simon T Diplock
Ok so they’ve been together for over a decade and there’s been countless tantrums, tours, big-money deals and several record labels between their debut and today, but with the release of seventh album, ‘Hello Destiny’, Goldfinger remain reassuredly the same as ever before. Which means we get adrenaline-fuelled stompers, ska-inflected punk songs and much pop excitement here. But it also means we get an album front-loaded with quality instead of decent all-round (seriously the last few tracks here are just turds) and some moments of pure rubbish (‘Not Amused’ is a pointless rant and Ian Watkins’ contribution to ‘War’ is awful). Existing fans will love it, no one else will care, but it’s nice to know some things never change though right.

Kaki King – Dreaming of Revenge
By Eddie Robson
Much as KT Tunstall wowed the Jools Holland audience with her energetic live-loops performance, anybody who saw Kaki King play the show late last year will have been dazzled by her unorthodox guitar technique. Of course, the bad news about KT Tunstall was that her actual songs were dreary and rubbish. No such news about King, whose fourth album ‘Dreaming of Revenge’ is a swoonsome delight, developing the post-rock sound she debuted on her previous record into tracks like the DJ Shadow-esque ‘Bone Chaos in the Castle’ and the new wave poppiness of ‘Pull Me Out Alive’. She’s ranked as one of Dave Grohl’s favourite guitarists in the world, but don’t expect any fretwanky solos: King creates strange, subtle patterns with her playing, as on the mesmeric ‘Montreal’. It’s fascinating, pretty stuff.

Captain Phoenix – Life.Temper.Riot
By Jon Fletcher
Captain Phoenix’s best song – ‘Pistols & Hearts’ – was enough to lure us to a gig they played at the Old Blue Last a while back. By the time the gig arrived, we’d been supplied with an advance copy of their debut album, ‘Life.Temper.Riot.’. A couple of listens to this assembly of bland, Radio 2 mediocrity was all it took for us to realise that their best song was in fact a thoughtless, meaningless churn of repeated mixed metaphors and that the rest of the album was much, much worse. The more discerning of our readers may find themselves marvelling at the fact it took us a full two listens. Sadly, the live show offered little redemption – genuinely abysmal lyrics and paint by numbers arrangements offered little to hide behind. Oh, and did we mention they’re related to Razorlight. Kind of.

Annihilation Time – III, Tales Of The Ancient Age
By Simon T Diplock
This California quintet have got a great attitude. They long for the days when sex, drugs, and raunchy rock’n’roll ruled, they recommend you buy this record only if you’ve already got the entire Black Flag back catalogue, and their press release screams ridiculous things like “You have two options here: worship or be crushed”. Disappointingly though, their music is not so hot. Sure, album number three, ‘Tales Of The Ancient Age’, is a slimy, sleazy slab of crusty punk, jerry-built in the same not-so-grand tradition as ‘Damaged’ and ‘Kick Out The Jams’, but it plays without either’s true fury, defiant independence, or nascent power. An excellent outlook then, but only a temporary sonic distraction at best.