No.9
Mclusky - The Difference Between You And
Me Is I'm Not On Fire
Eschewing
the scattershot pace of storming indie-punk classic
Mclusky Do Dallas, the fiery Welsh three-piece,
still under the reigns of abrasion-rock statesman Steve
Albini,
returned with a complex, difficult and dark third record.
The Difference… still sports scathing, brilliant
lyrics and a righteous fury, but atmospherically retreats
into the shadows. Three-chord attacks are replaced
with grinding bass rumbles, savage and shrill guitar
assaults and a gleeful disregard for structure. “Everywhere
I look is a darkness”, sings Andy Falkous, shortly
before disbanding the greatest, most uncompromising
and fearsome rock band of the last five years. TP
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No.8
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
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Having
won the Mercury with the fairly slick, commercially viable
(by her standards, at least) Stories From The City,
Stories From The Sea, Harvey seems to have deliberately
gone out of her way to make its follow-up ruffer round
the edges, as neatly illustrated by the unpronounceable
title, fake DIY sleeve and a song called “Who The
Fuck?” – the video for which features her
jumping around her flat with a washing-up brush, looking
every bit like a woman dangerously in peril of turning
into a parody of herself. Nonetheless, Uh Huh Her is
every bit as good as its predecessor, a volatile mix
of “…Fuck”-type anger and moody loveliness
like “Shame”, consolidating PJ’s
status as a real, no-messing rock genius. MB
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