Album Review: HI! by The Animen

 

The Animen are a band from Carouge, Switzerland and they introduce themselves with this first album entitled ‘HI!’ (Irascible, 2013). What better choice for a title than a friendly ‘HI!’ to the music industry and to the audience, of course. The great album cover portrays the smile of band member Robin Schneider and makes you wanna smile while listening to the record as well.

The album is opened by the slow and heart-breaking track ‘Harder Than Stone’. This song’s sound and the crooner mode adopted by the singer Theo Wyser, somehow brings us back to the 60s. Their sound is then turned to a 60s rock n’ roll in ‘Alice In My Life’, where, as the witty lyrics say, Alice is ‘back from Wonderland and straight into my life’. The 60s ambiance is found also in  ‘The Road Taken’, where the drums and guitars riffs are combined in an eclectic manner, and in ‘Down In Oslo’, where we are dragged into a lively rock n’ roll tune taking us through Oslo’s streets. Whereas the drums and bass intro in ‘The French Letter’ with its rather country sounds seems to take us in the Far West.

One of the best songs of this album is, without a doubt, their first single ‘My Pretty Ballerina’ that with its delicate ukulele opening builds up with the guitars to find a catchy rhythm and tune. This song is topped by its great-to-sing-along refrain ‘What goes around and around baby it comes around Our day on the top then the queen of the flop the taste of ground’.

This song is followed by two other  amazing slower songs ‘Portrait Of An Artist’ and ‘Not A Single Time’, the latter disclosing once more the singer’s crooner mode. ‘Another Grey Crime’ could well be the soundtrack to a Western movie, its guitars solo brings the listener back to the Far West atmosphere created in ‘The French Letter’. While ‘Shake (On The Tabletops)’ makes you want to shake and dance to their rock n’ roll tunes. The closing track, ‘A 16 Smokin’ Gun’, ends the album on a positive energetic rock n’ roll spoused to a ‘60s ambiance.

‘Hi!’ is a colourful album, taking the listener on a rock n’ roll journey back in the 60s, it makes you want to dance and sing along from the beginning to the end and it is even more so when you see The Animen live! This five guys have a contagious energy on and off the stage which makes it impossible for the audience to rest a second. So, have fun singing along and dancing to their great tunes! Bonne écoute et bon voyage!

AM is finally here :)

Just got AM, the brand new Arctic Monkeys’album in my mailbox today. Can’t wait to play it loud on my stereo 🙂

AM by Arctic Monkeys

AM is the 5^th studio album by Sheffield Indie-rockers Arctic Monkeys. The album is due to come out on the 9^th of September 2013 but it leaked online and I guess that’s the reason why the band decided to stream AM for free on iTunes.

What a pleasure listening to the album before it actually came out! I was laying in bed, headphones on and streaming the album. The first listen is always the weirdest but AM surely passed the test, I was so excited while I listened to the songs that I couldn’t fall asleep at all.

The opening track “Do I wanna know?” with its heavy and constant beat drags you into it right from the start. On top of it, the witty questions in the lyrics help to create a song that you want to play on repeat. The second track is the already well known rock tune “R u mine?”, which  became one of the fans’ jumping favourite during gigs. “One for the road” includes great chorus combined with a slow rap-like singing mode.  In  “Arabella” Alex Turner tells the story of a lover. This song stretches between the rock n’ roll refrain and the quite slow verse. “I Want It All”  is a very rhythmic song where falsettos take over. The ballad “No.1 Party Anthem” which style is ironically in antithesis with its title, strucks the listener for the beautiful repetitive rhythms and the lyrics. Reaching the edge with Alex Turner’s soft voice when he sings “Come on, come on, come on”. “Mad Sounds” is another great slow song, it reminds me of a pop song with a sprinkle of R’n’B in it. The “Uh la la la” makes it easy and a great song to sing along to. Repetitive beats, a great and catchy chorus make up “Fireside”. The next track is the funny and R’n’B “Why’d You Only Call Me When Your High”, which for its text, as Arctic Monkeys themselves said could well have appeared in their debut album Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not. “Snap Out Of It” is a song that with its drum beats and guitar riffs makes you want to jump. The chorus to the next song, “Knee Socks”, also feature Queen Of The Stone Age singer Josh Homme. The closing track “I Wanna Be Yours” find Alex Turner in his crooner mode and contains amazing and witty lyrics taken from one of John Cooper Clarke’s poem, like “I wanna be your vacuum cleaner breathing in your dust”.

So, this is AM, I think it’s absolutely brilliant both for its lyrics and the different styles and beats present in the songs. What do YOU think? If you haven’t heard it yet go and have a listen, you won’t regret it!