Mag review: Q Magazine, issue 261, April 2008

Music media

Mag review: Q Magazine, issue 261, April 2008

It’s R.E.M. month, with the band gracing the cover for the first time in seven years. The covermounted CD, R.E.M. Jukebox, features tracks chosen by the band, inlcuding side projects by Peter Buck and Micke Mills, and they’ll also be hosting Q Radio between 15th and 25th March.

Cover feature: R.E.M.

Ostensibly a promotion for new album Accelerate, this is in fact a refreshingly honest, but essentially defensive review of the past ten years. We learn that the band nearly split up ‘about 23,000 times’, and that their last three albums Up, Reveal and Around the Sun, were largely crap. At one point Stipe snaps: ‘Do we have to talk about how bad the last record was in order to talk about how good this one is?’ The answer, according to Q it seems, is ‘yes’.

Other features

The complete Radiohead is a 32-page monster feature covering the band’s entire career, with song-by-song commentary of all the albums. Lap it up, ‘head heads.
Even the backdrop of Marrakech can’t make The Feeling in any way interesting. The highlight of Johnny Davis’s interview is lead singer Dan Gillespie Sells‘ admission that he used to snort coke off of mirrors featuring the faces of Elvis, Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe.
Simon Goddard’s portrait of Manu Chao, on the other hand, captures his revolutionary spirit perfectly, on location at a gig in a psychiatriac hospital in Buenos Aires.

Main reviews

In the magazine’s lead review, Keith Cameron gives R.E.M.’s Accelerate a glowing review and 4/5 stars: “One could argue that Accelerate marks R.E.M.’s retreat to the proven safety zones of the past. But for all its pragmatic aspects, this is an album so drenched in exuberance and flair that it suggests pop’s young fetish is no substitute for experience.”
Rockferry by Duffy scores 4/5 in Peter Kane’s review: “It’s an album that openly borrows from the past, chiming perfectly with the modish demand for retro-soul.”
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds album Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!! gets 4/5 from Dorian Lynskey: “Like Bob Dylan on Time Out of Mind, Cave takes time to roam about the lyrical landscape he has spent his whole career mapping out.”
Luke Lewis gives Superabundance by Young Knives 4/5: “A hugely likeable and intelligent pop album that sings with human warmth, and, ultimately, quiet defiance.”
The new Guillemots album, Red, meets with David Smyth’s approval, with 4/5 stars: “A firmer push towards the mainstream is the obvious next move – this follow-up’s (to debut album Through the Windowpane) newfound glossy production sheen suggests that is the intention – but the creativity within is far from diluted.”
Hercules and Love Affair’s debut album Hercules and Love Affair, garners 4/5 stars from Gareth Grundy: “At their best when they cut loose and damn the consequences.”
Elbow’s new album, The Seldom Seen Kid, makes an impression on Victoria Segal, who gives it 4/5 stars: “They’re still burning: slowly, maybe, but stronger than ever.”

Covermounted CD highlights

Damaged Goods by Gang of Four – but you really should have the album Entertainment!
Mohammed’s Radio by Warren Zevon – quintessential LA songwriter.
Paranoid Android by Christopher O’Riley – classical piano take on Radiohead classic – and it works!