I want to like this record more than I actually do. That probably comes across as a much more negative sentence than I was aiming for, but it does sum the album up quite neatly. The songs are pretty nice, but they fail to grab me the way I was hoping they would after seeing him live. Sometimes I find one of the songs in my head a few days after listening to it, which always strikes me as odd because I can't remember it being so memorable at the time.
I saw Shoes and Sock Off on one of his last-ever shows, which Banquet ended up merging with a Front Bottoms show they were putting on. I'd heard the name before and figured I might pop along, but in the end was definitely there for The Front Bottoms. The back end of the crowd were chatting pretty loud during Shoes and Socks Off, which is a shame because the front half really wanted to hear him. Knowing it would be my only chance, I was in the front half but slightly disgruntled by the back half (although I think this is a trend when the musician is sat down - it's harder to see what's going on, and the music doesn't project over the crowd so well). His songs were nice and the acoustic guitar seemed nicely raw in places. Afterwards he was selling off his albums for whatever people wanted to play, so I gave him all the change in my pocket (£6.60 in this case, a reasonable but not astounding amount).
The album however, is a very different affair to the live show. The songs sound so much like Radiohead it's almost impossible to not make the comparison. The whole way through, I'm just reminded of slow Radiohead songs from Kid A onwards (Tork Sport sounds like it's straight off Hail to the Thief). The only times I'm not reminded of Radiohead, I'm reminded of Martin Grech, who some of you may remember. But these aren't necessarily bad things, however I really wanted those edgy acoustic songs I heard live instead. The acoustic guitar is there, but it's under a sea of electronic instruments.
This comes across as a really negative write-up, but I do quite like the album and he was really incredible to watch. In fact I really hope that it's just that I've not given it enough time yet, and maybe in five or ten years I'll find that I actually love this record (this has happened in the past, so it might happen again). However, as of today, it's just a record I quite like but wish I liked more.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 10
Cost: £6.60 new
Bought: gig
When: 18/09/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
