Before Crystal Castles’ debut album came out they did a mini Australian tour playing a bunch of remixes they had done for bands like; Bloc Party, The Klaxons, Goodbooks, Liars, Van She and The little ones. I couldn’t make any of their shows for one reason or another, but a few of my friends went and they said it was an awesome show. A few months past and I hadn’t heard much from Crystal Castles’ so I assumed that either they were out of juice or were working on an album.

Then I was watching Skins (teen drama from the UK, it’s like a good version of the OC) and they played Alice Practice from their debut album adaptly named Crystal Castles. Unlike most promotional TV music gigs this actually fitted in well with the plot line and most of the song was played without any major interruption.

After one listen I was hooked and promptly ordered a copy of the album. The whole album is pretty fucking amazing, you can’t quite listen to it from start to finish but if you’re busy you definitely won’t notice the one or two shitty songs on the album.

I read an interview with Ethan Kath (at least I think it was him being interviewed, he had admitted to getting a friend to sit in for him sometimes) where he said that they had turned down a number of major remix requests from big bands to make this first album. That would have been a huge decision to make but I think everybody can safely say it was a brilliant one.

You can buy Crystal Castles Self Titled first album for $10.97

Rating: 83/100

Listen to Crystal Castles - Alice Practice

Listen to Crystal Castles - Crimewave remix

Konk isn’t supposed to be out until tomorrow (April 15th), but I’ve somehow managed to get my dirty hands on a copy of The Kooks latest album. To say I’ve been looking forward to this album would be a huge understatement. Their first album Inside In/Inside Out was one of the best albums of 2006; Seaside, Naive and I want you all got massive airplay with Naive being one of my most requested songs during the end of 2006.

I listened to their first album, A LOT and I was nervously when the kooks finally gave their fans a release date. Would the new album live up to the hype that had built since their first release? Or would the album suck big ones like so many second albums do?

All that being said, I’ve listened to this new album on loop for the last three or four hours and it’s really good. There isn’t a standout on the album, but if I had to pick my favorite it’d have to be “See the Sun”, although their first single “Always where I need to be” is also good shit.

Rating: 87/100

Buy The Kooks’ Konk Album for $8.99 from Amazon.

Listen to The Kooks - Always where I need to be

Listen to The Kooks - See the Sun

I’ve been hearing a lot of this album recently on the radio - but it wasn’t until last week that I actually got a chance to grab a copy for myself. I was impressed with Jose Gonzalez first album attempt - Veneer and still listen to that album off and on to this day. That being said - I had big, no huge expectations for this new album. I wasn’t disappointed at all - from the outset you are given ‘How Low’ - this song is one of my favorites on the album. It starts off smooth and slow but finds a way to slowly amp up (well, amp up as much as a solo guitarist singing soft rock can…) I know why Jose decided to start the album off with this track - it really eases you in.

Like all good albums you can listen to this in it’s entirety - without skipping a single track. There are two stand outs in my mind on this album - the first being ‘Down the line’ which is the second track on the album. I am not sure what it is with artists - but tracks 2 and 3 always seem to be the stand outs. Don’t ask me why because I sure don’t know.

The second stand out has to be his cover of the Massive Attack song - Teardrop. If you are wondering where you have heard that tune before (like I was, it annoyed me for weeks!) it’s the introduction music for the TV show - House M.D. While I was doing my research for this review (that’s right, research folks!) I found out that Jose Gonzalez is quite a fan of covers - having done Heartbeats by The knife, Born in the U.S.A and The Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen, Love will tear us apart by Joy Division and Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat.

Overall rating: 80/100

If you’d like to purchase In Our Nature you can do so through Amazon for $10.97 If you don’t already own his first album, Veneer I’d suggest picking that up also for Amazon for $13.99.

Listen to Jose Gonzalez - Down the Line

When this album first came out I was pumped for it, I had heard quite a lot of hype surrounding this release and given the name of the band I was hoping for some more great Aussie indie rock. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your outlook) the wombats are actually from the UK, they also don’t play indie rock.

Before I sat down for the full album listen I had heard “Let’s dance to joy division” quite a lot on the radio, I got hooked to the poppy beat, the irony of the indie scene and the upbeat sound of the lead singer. I was hoping to find a few more hidden gems in the album. Before I could get to them I had to listen to the intro song “Tales of Girls, Boys and Marsupials”, if you’ve ever wondered if the wombats do drugs then this song is empirical evidence that they do. I am used to intro songs sucking, but the wombats take it to a whole new level.

Thankfully the album picks up after this shocking attempt at an acapella, “Killing the director” and “Moving to new york” follow the intro and are easily two of the best songs on the album after “Let’s dance to joy division”. Other than these three songs the album doesn’t really gain any momentum, it just sort of soldiers on until it finally dies after 44 minutes.

If you listen to the wombats in full, the lead singers voice will start to really grate on your ears. Which is why I suggest that you only listen to one or two tracks at a time.

Overall rating: 65/100

The Wombats - A Guide To Love, Loss And Desperation is available from amazon for $24.98

Without futher ado here are some tracks to listen to.

Listen to The Wombats - Moving to New York

Listen to The Wombats - Let’s Dance to Joy Division