In the last couple of months I’ve received four new albums, some new releases, some not so old. Here’s reviews of each:

Push The Sky Away – Nick Cave

I had a bad feeling about this album, based mostly on the fact I just hated the last album he put out (Dig, Lazarus Dig!!!). Sadly, my fears were to be founded, since I find this album equally underwhelming. This is not to say it’s a bad album – since the songs are well crafted, the performances are tight and his singing is capable. It’s just that it all feels very manufactured, much like the album he may put out were he to deconstruct his back catalog in an effort to reproduce the sounds of (say) a decade ago. The problem is he isn’t the same man and his band isn’t the same band. The lyrics in particular stand out as very ‘uncavelike’, as if someone else wrote them to sound like a Nick Cave song. Since I found the album average rather than objectionable, I listened to it about a dozen times, thinking perhaps it may take a while to grow on me. But it never did, and ultimately I conceded that since I have a dozen other fantastic Cave albums to listen to, what’s the point of wasting time on this one?

Delta Machine – Depeche Mode

Oh dear, this is awful. I’ve been a mode fan for over thirty years now (!), and own everything they have ever done. I still love almost all of it as well, and listen to the back catalogue frequently. But as many DM fans may admit, they went off a cliff when Alan Wilder left in 1995 and all subsequent albums (Ultra onwards) weren’t quite the same, filled with mediocrity and lacking good melodies. Despite this, most of the albums had a few (very) bright spots on them, such as ‘I Feel Loved’ (Ultra), ‘Macro’ (Exciter) or ‘Wrong’ (Sounds of the Universe). The new album, Delta Machine, is a definite exception to this rule, containing not one single listenable song. This album – to put it mildly – is a dirge, full of self-indulgent lyrics that are accompanied by electronic sounds that barely contain any melody. The very first song (‘Welcome To My World’) almost dares the listener to turn it off, so repellent is the sparse ‘musical’ intro and first spoken line. The downward slide continues, as you realise it is representative of the entire album, as you wonder what happened to the band that only a few years ago produced this or (thematically similar to this album), this. “A slow burn”, some critics say, “…takes repeated listens”. In other words, you need to force yourself to even begin to enjoy this album apparently. No thanks.

White Heat (Greatest Hits) – Icehouse

Adam gave me this one for Christmas, presumably knowing how much I like the bands early material. And what a gift it was, since not only did I not have most of the songs on it, but I had completely forgotten about the Flowers era. Short version for those unaware: Icehouse is an Australian band (actually one guy, Iva Davies) that had massive success worldwide during the mid 80s and 90s with songs like this. This double CD collects all their singles and the first disc in particular is a tour-de-force of early 1980s emo electronica: ‘We Can Get Together‘, ‘Icehouse’, ‘Street Cafe‘, ‘Hey Little Girl’ and many, many more. Absolutely fantastic stuff from a guy that was very much on the cutting edge back in those days. I wish I’d appreciated Icehouse more in my youth; I would have loved to see them live during their heyday. This collection is highly recommended!

Goes Petshopping – West End Girls

How can this exist? West End Girls was a pair of swedish girls that released on album of Pet Shop Boys covers back in 2006 that has become frustratingly difficult to acquire (and I’ve tried in four countries!). Eventually a plea resulted in Bernard getting it for my for my birthday, and boy oh boy was it worth the wait! Every song on here is a cover of a Pet Shop Boys hit sung in delicious ‘Swedish girl’ dialect that just makes me grin with how much fun the songs are. Here’s an example. And here’s another. Don’t you love how she sings “Add anudder numba to da score”! On a more serious note, this is an album of great songs covered very well by an electronic girl duo. Standout tracks include ‘You Only Tell Me You Love Me When Your Drunk’ and ‘Go West’ (exclusive to the Japanese version, which BS got me!). This one has been on very heavy rotation since I got it and will likely continue that way for some time. One of my new favourite albums!