The Music Note

Ahead of next week's release of fourth studio album,  Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action , Franz Ferdinand returned to London last night to play a sold-out gig at Electric Brixton. The intimate performance, in which tickets were initially only available to purchase through a lottery, marks the band's first London gig since 2009 - the same year that saw the release of their last studio album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand . After four years, and as a long-time fan of the band, I was eager to hear the new songs, along with material from past albums, in a live setting. The band emerged to a cheering crowd at 9:30pm and wasted no time in getting the set underway with lead single 'Right Action', from the upcoming album. This was followed by 'No You Girls' and the harmonious, bass driven grooves of 'Tell Her Tonight'. New songs 'Bullet' and 'Love Illumination' suggest a return to the former sounds of their first two records, with strong ...

Taken from his 2006 album Better Things , Jonah Werner's 'Falling Star' is an excitable fusion of wistful vocals and dreamy melodies. Werner's direct lyrics and rhythmic vocal delivery effortlessly leads the song from verse to bridge, though it's the sweeping choruses, complete with uplifting backing harmonies, that are the true defining moments of the track.

On 'Quarter Life Crisis', James Craise's soulful vocals deliver lyrics that are raw and honest. Lines like "Dreading Sunday, knowing that it's Monday / When I wake, it's more than I can take" are universally relatable, and succeed in being comforting rather than pessimistic. Though this is mostly due to Craise's impressively powerful vocal range, the track has a strong, flowing structure that adds further depth to the lyrics. A delicate piano is the dominating instrument, while strings and unison vocals add an effective intensity and richness to the song.

Glorious melodies and unpredictable hooks are a plenty on Red Sails' 'Looking Out To Sea'. The track offers up a sublime mix of sounds, from smooth guitars and tinkering keys to crashing drums, all of which flow effortlessly alongside soulful vocals and backing harmonies. Though the song is instantly addictive, solid production results in further interesting elements - both instrumentally and structurally - being revealed upon each additional listen.

Playing Wembley Stadium is a feat few bands achieve in their career, but for The Killers, last Saturday's gig at the 90,000-capacity venue holds further sentiment in that it marks a decade since the band's first ever UK gig, at intimate club, The Dublin Castle in Camden. In those ten years, the band have released four studio albums, ranked up 20 million worldwide record sales and played countless festival headlining slots, all of which have culminated to this mammoth gig at Wembley - their largest performance to date. The band took to the stage just before 9:00pm, with Brandon Flowers playing 'Enterlude' solo on the piano. The set then got underway with fan favourite 'When You Were Young', followed by the equally energetic 'Spaceman'. Flowers' vocals were on top form throughout the two-hour gig, though it was the Battle Born material that really demonstrated his range, most evidently on 'The Way It Was' and 'Miss Atomic Bomb' - both...

After the rich, soulful sounds of John Mayer's third studio album Continuum , I was curious and perhaps slightly sceptical at the thought of an acoustic EP based on that album. Though this is due in part, to the fact that, as I have mentioned in a previous post , I prefer listening to music with a full band rather than acoustically, in the case of The Village Sessions , there were more factors which contributed to my general lack of excitement prior to its release. Firstly, I love the production on Continuum , the instrumentation holds a consistent warmth and fullness that is complimented by slick arrangements and Mayer's thought provoking lyrics, overall culminating in a soulful, solid sound that runs throughout the album. However, it was attending the live shows throughout the Continuum era (and listening to all of the amazing fan-made recordings from the tours) that gave me a fuller appreciation of the album - the songs just sounded so damn good live, arguably even better t...

Two months after his surprise intimate gig at The Lock Tavern in Camden, Josh Rouse returned to London last Wednesday to perform at the Islington Assembly Hall, in support of his most recent album,  The Happiness Waltz . Josh took to the stage with a full band to play to a sold-out crowd of 700 fans, a very different atmosphere to The Lock Tavern gig, in which he played a solo acoustic set in a cosy upstairs room in a pub. Since I purchased the tickets to the gig through PledgeMusic , my friend Steve and I got the opportunity to attend a meet and greet with Josh and watch him and his band soundcheck in preparation for the evening's performance. The soundcheck was like a concert in itself, with Josh playing eight tracks, all of which got us excited for the night ahead, though it was hearing the first verse and chorus of 'It Looks Like Love' that really got my feet tapping, and left me hoping that the song would be included in the evening's setlist. I always enjoy watc...