Kasabian – 48:13

Since being announced as one of this years Glastonbury headliners, the pressure is on for Kasabian to deliver something that is worthy of such a privilege. After a few listens to their fifth album, 48:13, named after the total running time and due for release on the 9th June, I would argue that they have succeeded in doing so.

The first single from the album ‘Eez-eh’, is a great, upbeat track and I’m pleased to say that it’s only one of many from this LP that I can imagine going down well at such a festival. Other standout tracks include ‘Bumblebeee’, with it’s chant provoking repeats of “I’m in ecstasy” alongside ‘Stevie,’ and ‘Doomsday’, with the band insisting “What you see is what you get with me”, fitting with what Sergio recently said about how they had aimed to be more direct and honest with this album.

It is clear that Kasabian wanted to do something different this time around, with much less emphasis on their guitars and an increasing amount of indie disco style music creeping in to what before was more traditional rock.

Contrasting with the range of upbeat tracks however are those such as ‘Glass’, which starts off with a more mournful tone – with pleads of “save me from this world” and ending with a young persons spoken words that question where life is leading us with lyrics like “Are you running around in a circle, going nowhere fast? Cause when you look at the man in the mirror, he’s made of nothing but glass.”

Explodes, despite the title is another of the slower tracks. It has the potential for some excitement to kick in in places but it just doesn’t happen, the trippy sounds build up, but then bam, it’s back to more of the same, resulting in an ironically unexplosive track.

Ending the album is another risk taken by the band, which certainly pays off. S.P.S is an Oasis-esque ballad which would be the perfect addition to their encore, as Serge sings “Didn’t we all have such a good time? Didn’t we all have the greatest night, even though we know its wrong, I know there’s time for one more song.”

 

Foxes live review (Sheffield Leadmill 23/05/14)

Last night Sheffield’s iconic music venue The Leadmill played host to the latest of the UK’s female pop singers to storm the charts – Louisa Rose Allen, known to most as Foxes.

After an energetic set by Glasgow based band Prides (who are definitely worth checking out), Foxes took to the stage looking as beautiful as ever, to a huge reception of screams from the crowd which consisting of males and females of all ages.

‘White coats’, the first real sing a long of the night, really portrayed how powerful her voice is – easily comparable to acts like Florence and La Roux who both show off similar tones and stage setups.

Another track which really stood out to me was ‘Beauty Queen’ – a balled consisting of powerfully belted out lyrics that question people’s judgement based on looks.

Halfway through the show we were treated to an acoustic cover of Pharell’s ‘Happy’ which soon kicked in to the livelier version we all know, and despite my initial disappointment that we weren’t hearing her Eminem cover of ‘Monster’, I was impressed.

One downside I think to the show is Foxes lack of communication with the crowd – but she can be forgiven for feeling slightly intimidated due to the massive success she has experienced in such a short space of time.

In saying this however she certainly makes up for it with her energy on stage! In ‘Youth’ Foxes sings, “don’t tell me our youth is running out” and whilst she dances around the stage and is clearly not running out of youth anytime soon, the crowd in the main were stood still. I don’t doubt for a second that they weren’t enjoying the show, it just wasn’t very lively as they simply watched, most likely in awe of her stunning voice.

Ending the evening on a high with the two most well known tracks – Zedd’s Grammy winning Clarity and her recent top 10 hit ‘Let go for tonight’ the audience finally joined Foxes in doing so; going crazy with appreciation for her brilliant performance.