Here’s the mixtape for April! 20 songs old and new that we’re loving at The Music Box.
Tag: music
Nothing But Thieves – Live Review [O2 Forum, 31/03/2016].
There was an electric atmosphere in the O2 Forum, Kentish Town yesterday evening as over 2000 fans packed into the venue to catch a glimpse of one of the UK’s current best alternative-rock bands. Since their formation in 2012, Nothing But Thieves have quickly grown in popularity, largely propelled by frequent radio airplay. The Southend-on-Sea band went on to score a UK top 10 album in October 2015* and have since been touring both in their own right and as a support act to various established bands.
Last night, the band were supported by the energetic if somewhat clamorous Black Foxxes and the great Sundara Karma. Both were fitting for the event and warmed up the audience effectively before Nothing But Thieves’ arrival at 9:30pm. ‘Itch‘ was the perfect opener with its urgent guitar riffs and its tension-building verses. ‘Painkiller‘ followed suit, the frantic percussion and driving bass lines pulsating throughout the venue and raising energy levels from the audience.
The setlist was spot on (aside from the absence of stunning ballad ‘Lover, Please Stay’) with a perfect balance of powerful rock anthems and the band’s more haunting ballads. The likes of ‘Hostage’, ‘Excuse Me’ and ‘Honey Whiskey’ translated brilliantly live and conveyed an infectious energy whilst the ballads formed magical moments of the show. The gorgeous ‘Graveyard Whistling‘, haunting ‘Tempt You‘ and eerie ‘If I Get High‘ all rippled emotively throughout the venue and were worthy of goosebumps as frontman Conor Mason captivated the audience with his intoxicating vocals.
The band performed as a unit; tight and in-sync whilst Mason’s vocals were other-worldly and at times eerily reminiscent of Jeff Buckley. His vocals are sturdy and perfectly executed, whether through the murmured lower register or his ethereal, soaring falsettos. He is in possession of one of the most remarkable and powerful male vocals in the world and it is truly phenomenal to experience them live.
The evening was solely about the music, emphasised by the lack of theatrics in the show; the band were aided only by a backdrop of their eponymous début album and atmospheric lighting. Still, this was enough for the audience who were on-side throughout the entire evening. The atmosphere in the venue was electric, prompting Mason to comment on the energy in the present multiple times throughout the show. He appeared rather overwhelmed by the vast sea of faces in the venue but channelled this into a buoyant energy and was an instantly likeable front-man. At one point he responded to a emerging chant for him to remove his t-shirt with “No I’m not taking my top off, my Nan’s on the balcony!” prior to instructing the crowd to cheer for her.
The evening concluded in an enthralling encore comprised of three of the band’s best tracks; ‘If I Get High‘, ‘Trip Switch‘ and ‘Ban All The Music’. It was a brilliant finale to a fantastic evening and proved that Nothing But Thieves are the alt-rock band of now.
All photos taken from the band’s official Twitter account.
*Read our review of Nothing But Thieves’ début album here
Setlist:
- Itch
- Painkiller
- Hostage
- Hanging
- Graveyard Whistling
- Excuse Me
- Honey Whiskey
- Where Is My Mind (Pixies cover)
- Drawing Pins
- Tempt You
- Wake Up Call
ENCORE - If I Get High
- Trip Switch
- Ban all the Music
Catch Nothing But Thieves on tour now:
Feel-Good Friday
Every Friday, we are adding three tracks to our Feel-Good Friday Spotify playlist. The aim? To create a definitive playlist featuring the best uplifting, feel-good tracks in the world!
Check here every Friday to check any additions!
FOLLOW the Music Box to never miss an update again.
Music Monday – Volume Ninety Two
1) Kendrick Lamar – These Walls
The american rapper throws a curveball on this neo-soul influenced hip hop track. Breezy, light and reflective, it’s a brilliant track and one of Lamar’s best.
2) Mark Pritchard – Beautiful People
Gentle electronic track which drifts effortlessly throughout its six minute duration.
3) Zayn – SHe
Brilliant alt-R&B track with moody guitar riffs, an awesomely catchy chorus and polished production. It’s carried by buoyant beats and Zayn’s syrupy vocals. One of his best.
4) Digital Farm Animals – Wanna Know
Buoyant house track with a brilliantly catchy hook.
5) White Denim – Take It Easy
Soulful and relaxed track with a retro vibe. Utilising little more than organic percussion, bright keys, jazzy riffs, funky bass lines and beautiful falsetto vocals, it’s a lovely track.
6) ROMANS – Silence (ALUNA GEORGE Edit)
Chipmunk-esque pitch-moderated vocal samples, hip hop beats and reverberating soulful vocals carry this brilliant and powerful track.
7) SBTRKT, D.RAM, Mabel – I FEEL YOUR PAIN
Elusive producer SBTRKT teams up with vocalists D.RAM and Mabel on this jittery neo-soul track with elements of alternative R&B.
8) Nick Jonas & Tove Lo – Close
Sultry and moody R&B track which utilises steel pans and thunderous percussion. It’s a powerful track driven by Mattman and Robin’s tight production.
9) Barq – Gentle Kind of Lies
Quirky and brilliant Alternative R&B track with furious guitar riffs, funky bass lines and rock-influenced percussion. Jess Kav’s soulful vocals shine throughout.
10) James Morrison – Need you Tonight
Catchy pop track with funky guitar riffs, skipping bass lines and bright piano chords. Drawing upon disco and soul elements, it’s one of his best songs of his career.
Zayn – Mind of Mine Album Review
The past year has been something of a roller-coaster for Zayn Malik. A year ago, he broke millions of fans’ hearts when he announced he would be leaving One Direction to pursue the life of a ‘normal 22 year old’. It later emerged that he had been secretly recording solo material and his animosity towards his boyband days was soon made crystal clear in numerous interviews in which he took multiple swipes at the band and their music. A shock split with fiancée Perrie Edwards soon followed in addition to multiple venomous and highly publicised Twitter spats. Still, these potential career suicide-moments have been long forgotten since lead single ‘PILLOWTALK‘ rocketed in to the top of the charts of over a dozen countries.
As expected, ‘Mind of Mine’ is a world away from Malik’s One Direction days. Gone is the pop-punk and stadium-pop and in is alternative R&B, catchy dance-pop and elements of Soul. It’s slick, polished, consistent and mature with reverberating vocal samples, hip-hop beats and effect-drenched vocals scattered throughout. It’s a natural transition into R&B music similarly to Justin Timberlake’s début ‘Justified’ fourteen years ago.
‘Mind of Mine’ excels from start to finish with barely a blip. Overall, it possesses a moody and brooding tone with sexualized lyrics and a deeply-textured sound, resulting in a cohesive catalogue of material on which Malik revels in his newly-found freedom. Lead single ‘PILLOWTALK’ remains a stand-out track with its its thunderous percussion, reverberating synths, wailing guitars and Zayn’s sweeping vocals. The rest of the album follows suit with the sullen yet dreamy ‘dRuNk‘ featuring Malik’s multi-layered harmonies boasting ‘I’ve been drunk all summer’ over unsettled R&B percussion, summery synthesisers and weeping electric guitars. ‘rEaR vIeW‘ is similarly a sulky progressive R&B track with sparse production and a Timbaland-like chorus. Then there’s the beautifully haunting ‘iT’s YoU‘ – a gentle downtempo ballad on which Zayn’s stunning falsetto soars over jittering synths, a droning organ, hip-hop beats and crunching piano chords.
Just when things need shaking up a bit, the Beatle-esque piano chords of ‘fOoL fOr YoU‘ arrive. It’s a pleasant piano ballad on which Malik’s vocals really glisten and are relatively free of the over-production the rest of the album is laden with. The track mirrors The Beatles in both song-writing and production and it punctuates the album nicely.
Malik also refreshingly incorporates his cultural heritage into the album in the form of haunting interludes. The opening title-track features soaring Qawwali-influenced melodies over piano chords and clonking synthesiser arpeggios. Similarly, one of the album’s unexpected highlights is ‘fLoWer‘, a gorgeous acoustic interlude influenced by Malik’s upbringing as a British Pakistani Muslim. He executes his voice in Urdu, his father’s native language and warbles over eerie synthesisers and gentle acoustic guitars. It’s an innovative and utterly unique inclusion on an R&B album which works perfectly.
The dance-pop moments also work well, implemented best on ‘sHe‘ with its brilliantly catchy hook, slick production and buoyant production. It is miles away from the stadium pop-rock One Direction produced and is a steer in the right direction (pun not intended), reminiscent of some of Justin Bieber’s best moments on ‘Purpose’. Then there’s the soulful ‘tRuTh’, a track reminiscent of 70’s Soul with giggling synthesisers, a retro-guitar sound and distorted production. Featuring a brilliantly sunny chorus with sugary falsettos, it’s one of the album’s understated highlights.
Malik always had the advantage of having the strongest voice in One Direction and he exhibits his syrupy vocals perfectly on the album. His vocals are sturdy and powerful throughout, whilst his falsetto is his real gift, fluttering delicately over meticulously programmed instrumentals.
A bold and compelling album which validates Zayn’s transition into a credible recording artist.
Rating: 5/5.
Highlights: ‘PILLOWTALK’, ‘dRuNk’, ‘iT’s YoU’, ‘sHe’, ‘fLoWer’, ‘tRuTh’
‘Mind of Mine’ is available now on RCA Records.
Feel-Good Friday
Every Friday, we are adding three tracks to our Feel-Good Friday Spotify playlist. The aim? To create a definitive playlist featuring the best uplifting, feel-good tracks in the world!
Check here every Friday to check any additions!
FOLLOW the Music Box to never miss an update again.
Music Monday – Volume Ninety Two
1) Kanye West – Real Friends
Moody, downtempo hip-hop track with an overall melancholic tone and brilliant lyrics.
[Because Kanye is a tool and won’t put any of his latest music anywhere where people may actually listen, this is the only clip available: http://bbc.in/1OmSlT4]
2) Shura – The Space Tapes
Fuzzy, spaced-out electro-remixes of three tracks from Shura’s forthcoming highly-anticipated début album ‘Nothing’s Real’. Reverberating vocal samples, frolicking synthesisers and eerie sounds all echo infinitely throughout this nine-minute sampler track.
3) Niki and The Dove – Play it on my radio
Gentle but majestic 80’s-influenced synthpop track. Mirroring Fleetwood Mac at their peak, precarious percussion, dreamy harmonies and fluttering synthesisers drift beautifully through this brilliant song.
4) The Floyds – You
Lovely, breezy acoustic-based track with great lyrics.
5) Liss – Sorry
Dream-like, heavily auto-tuned synthpop track from up-and-coming band Liss, comprised of clinking synths, a waltz-like bass line and a meandering rhythm.
6) WSTRN – Come Down
Another brilliantly catchy R&B track with electro elements from West-London collective WSTRN. Sampling Evelyn King’s 1982 hit ‘Love Come Down’, the trio have created another smash record.
7) KAYTRANDA & Karriem Riggins – BUS RIDE
A beautifully chilled-out instrumental track from Canadian musician KAYTRANADA. Twinkling pianos, soulful and eerie synthesisers and fierce percussion drives this retro alternative-R&B track.
8) The 1975 – The Ballad of Me and My Brain
Brilliant track on which witty lyrics are growled over unsteady percussion and fierce guitar work. Haunting vocal samples evolve into a neurotic punk-pop track which perfectly captures losing your mind.
9) The 1975 – Lostmyhead
Dark and melancholic shoegazing track which is musically simple but incredibly powerful. Heavy, distorted electric guitar riffs and hazy synthesisers form the backdrop as frontman Matt Healy drones ‘And he said, I lost my head, can you see it, can you see it?’. It eventually climaxes in a brilliant orchestral track with percussion.
10) Active Child – 1999
Jazzy and soulful track by electronic artist Patrick Gossi, under his working name of Active Child. Gentle percussion and jazzy pianos with Gossi’s beautiful falsettos all result in a beautiful song.
Feel Good Friday
Every Friday, we are adding three tracks to our Feel-Good Friday Spotify playlist. The aim? To create a definitive playlist featuring the best uplifting, feel-good tracks in the world!
Check here every Friday to check any additions!
FOLLOW the Music Box to never miss an update again.
Music Monday – Volume Ninety One
1) The 1975 – She’s American
Funky indie-rock ballad which mirrors work by INXS & Duran. Slamming percussion, frantic guitar riffs and skippy synthesiser sounds provide the song’s instrumentation as Matt Healy sings of cultural differences between him and his American girlfriend. It’s brilliantly catchy and very witty lyrically.
2) The 1975 – This Must Be My Dream
Perhaps the best song on The 1975’s new album. The band demonstrate their impeccable synchronicity through layering gospel melodies, silky vocals, slamming percussion, driving bass lines and snarling guitar riffs. It’s a throwback to the new-jack-swing era in the late eighties and early nineties bought to popularity through producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and Teddy Riley through musicians such as Bobby Brown, Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson.
3) The 1975 – Paris
Beautiful and mellow electropop ballad which imitates Yazoo’s ‘Only You’ to a point just before being eligible for a lawsuit. Sparse guitars, dizzy synthesisers and a gorgeous honeyed ‘again and again’ refrain makes this another of the album’s strongest tracks.
4) The 1975 – I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it
A proficient, cleverly-created instrumental which punctuates the album beautifully. Pretty and melodic piano particles flutter over driving electronica whilst Healy’s lusciously layered vocals beg his lover not to leave. The track is lengthy at six minutes but is split into two parts, evolving into an uplifting and exquisitely beautiful house track.
5) The 1975 – Loving Someone
Giggling synthesisers and hiphop beats form the backdrop as Matt Healy half-raps his best lyrics to date; a cultural observation on the impact pop culture and celebrity have on youth.
6) Gallant & Jhene Aiko – Skipping Stones
Chilled-out neosoul track which carries a retro vibe. Gallant’s incredible vocals flutter into a rich falsetto over brass instruments, driving bass lines and twinkling keyboards.
7) Joe & Jake – You’re Not Alone
Uplifting and euphoric pop-rock track which is this year’s UK Eurovision entry. Whilst criticised by many for its generic formula and chord structure, it’s a powerful and beautiful track.
8) Laurel – Life Worth Living
Moody alternative-pop track which avoids over-production, instead focussing on using organic, pure instruments.
9) Zayn – Like I Would
Catchy alt-R&B track featuring elastic synthesisers, synthetic percussion and a brilliantly sing-song chorus.
10) The Last Shadow Puppets – Everything You’ve Come to Expect
Quirky and brilliantly written track which utilised genres such as baroque pop, psychedelic pop and experimental rock.
Feel Good Friday
Every Friday, we are adding three tracks to our Feel-Good Friday Spotify playlist. The aim? To create a definitive playlist featuring the best uplifting, feel-good tracks in the world!
Check here every Friday to check any additions!
FOLLOW the Music Box to never miss an update again.
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