Liam Reviews: The Black Keys, Foo Fighters, Lip Critic, and more!

 Daughn Gibson - Lake Mary Not Mysterious

Daughn Gibson is an artist whose style is really difficult to pinpoint. It has a bit of everything - indie, experimentalism, country, blues, soul, Americana. It's perhaps surprising that a man of such talent has only released two albums prior to this latest effort, Lake Mary Not Mysterious.

Where prior albums such as Me Moan have wonderfully experimental songs like 'You Don't Fade', Lake Mary... is a lot more back to basics in terms of its style. And this is what makes the album such a compelling listen. Despite its relative simplicity and conventional nature, there are still multiple genres - primarily country, Americana, and some bluesy/garage rock style sleaziness throughout.

Daughn's crooning baritone vocals  are majestic on opening track 'So Good (I Was)', which certainly lives up to its title. A good comparison point would be someone like Mark Lanegan. Then there's the gorgeous alt-country lilt of 'Sacred Life' which is genuinely glorious. 'Wide Open Lines' takes us to bluesier territory and sounds like something that could find itself among the acoustic cuts of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Howl. It's the spellbinding 'Saint Paul' that shines through most on the album though - it typifies the nostalgia with its looping acoustic mantra throughout. Put simply, it'll be difficult to find a more poignant or gorgeous album in the country vein all year.

9/10

Failure - Location Lost

Failure are one of many bands that I've always been meaning to explore based on a couple of tracks, but for whatever reason I've never got around to it. With that in mind, I'm very much going into Location Lost - their sixth album - with anticipation and a little bit of uncertainty as to what to expect from the space rock veterans. 

A lot of that spaciness is in evidence here, with plenty of soundscapes resembling contemporaries like Swervedriver, especially on 'A Way Down' which is one of the album's best moments. The best moments happen on the first two tracks, however, with 'Crash Test Delayed' an epic example of the kind of thing Failure can put together. The Hayley Williams featuring 'The Rising Skyline' is also wonderful once it hits its stride toward the back end of the track.

All that said, between the first two and final two tracks, there is something of a lull. Even within the aforementioned Williams feature, that takes a while to reach the point of brilliance. That said, there's more than enough to carry this album to being worthy of your time.

7/10

Foo Fighters - Your Favourite Toy

Throughout their three decade career, it would be fair to say few bands have created as many rock anthems as Foo Fighters. That said, barring the excellent return to form of But Here We Are, things have been a little hit and miss of late. There's very much a lull in the quality of the band's output from 2014 to 2021 - nothing quite packed the same punch of the earlier work, or indeed the early to mid-noughties heyday.

As someone who stands by the opinion that their self-titled debut is a punk masterpiece and is probably their best album, a lot of the recent output leans more toward dull arena-rock without any particular excitement. On Your Favourite Toy, however, the band seem to re-discover that punk edge that made them so great in the first place.

On the whole, it's a pretty consistent record, from epic opening track 'Caught in the Echo' to the frenetic title track, to the punkiest thing on here, 'Amen, Cavemen', it all comes together pretty cohesively. Some of the lyrics are a bit naff (such as 'you should be dead, but you're alive instead' - wow), but it's a tight batch of songs, and is the sign of a band continuing to re-discover their absolute pomp. Long may it continue.

8/10

The Black Keys - Peaches!

You know what you're getting with The Black Keys. And in many ways, that's the issue - it's all just so predictable. So much so that it's genuinely difficult to even review this album in the sense that you couldn't really pick apart one song from the other.

Sure, if you're into bluesy garage rock, you might find something to enjoy about Peaches!. But if you've heard one album track, you've pretty much heard them all. The album consists entirely of blues covers, so perhaps it makes sense that there's little innovation or distinction. Perhaps there doesn't need to be, but if you're looking for that, you won't really find it here.

The one highlight is final track, 'Nobody But You Baby', which is a seven minute epic that at least sounds slightly interesting. It's kind of a shame nothing else on the album really matches it. Unfortunately Peaches! is a pretty tedious listen all told.

5/10

Lip Critic - Theft World

Named as such in order to sound 'Dadaesque', Lip Critic's second album dropped earlier this month, and it's easy to see why the electropunk/rap/industrial/post-punk New York outfit have been taking in all the plaudits. Pretty much everything about Theft World is alive and resounding and virtually unskippable throughout its just over half an hour duration.

Opener 'Two Lucks' finds frontman Bret Kaser singing in his incredibly Brooklyn accent You are the hell that I built for myself over a punishing industrial soundscape. As you delve deeper, you realise this is just the start of an exhilarating journey. 'Jackpot' goes even harder with its fire alarm bell samples before descending into an outro that could almost be described as beautiful. Almost. Generally though, nothing here is supposed to be beautiful, rather brilliantly abrasive like following track 'Debt Forest', or the pulsatingly evil synths of 'Talon' which bring an artist like PVT to mind. 

Of course in such a genre, Death Grips comparisons are inevitable, but they hold a lot of weight here. Where Lip Critic differ is their ear for melody within this chaotic soundscape makes for an album that is infectious and addictive. 'Charity Dinner' has a chorus so good it could almost be described as a pop song. Again, almost. 'Shoplifting' showcases this ear for melody even further with its heavenly instrumentals, before 'Legs in a Snare' somehow encompasses everything truly brilliant about this band. Then, the swashbuckling ride is over before it's even began. But like an arcade machine, just insert your coin and go again for another few hours.

9.5/10

Aldous Harding - Train on the Island

Five albums in, and I find myself annoyed at having only just discovered New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding, and Train on the Island is the reason why. Indie-folk is never an easy genre to pull off without sounding derivative or tedious, but Harding very much manages to sidestep that with a high quality batch of songs.

Take for instance opening track 'I Ate the Most', with its smooth, almost lite-jazz undertones, and a vocal performance reminiscent of PJ Harvey. There's the more stripped back acoustics of the title track too - a track beautiful in its simplicity. 'Venus in the Zinnia' contains a brilliant feature from Welsh indie-folk singer H. Hawkline.

Harding channels all kinds of brilliant influences; Fiona Apple on 'If Lady Does It', Cat Power on the brilliant 'What Am I Gonna Do?'. Yet throughout, never does the album feel unoriginal. It's an album likely to slip under many people's radar this year, but it deserves far better than that.

8/10