Washington - How To Tame Lions EP

8.4/10

2009 was a big year for Megan Washington; not only did she rise from musical obscurity to support big acts such as Kate Miller-Heidke and Grizzly Bear, she also appeared on big Aussie music quiz shows Rockwiz and Spicks and Specks. Her astonishing vocal delivery while singing classics through the words You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay on Spicks and Specks was what convinced me to pick up a copy of How To Tame Lions, Washington’s second EP.

How To Tame Lions starts with the high tempo Cement, a song about a lover writing some pretty personal information out on the street for all to see. The song starts with a strong drum beat followed by tumbling keys which announce that you’re being dragged down into her world. Megan’s fantastic musicianship and knack for a good vocal hook are revealed very early in the piece, leading the way for an energetic chorus and almost theatre style backing vocals near the end.

Second up is the title track, and easily the best thing Megan has produced so far. Starting with a solitary keyboard note, the song expertly flourishes from minimalistic electronica to one of the best choruses of the year “How do you tame a lion, when they are lying low, you’d be my Arthur Miller, and I’d be your Marilyn Monroe”. Here Megan is clever enough to continue to ride of the exuberance of the chorus in to a long bridge, which in turn finds it way back to the chorus. Just as the first part of the song continued to build, the second half of the song strips back each instrument til just vocals finish of the song.

Teenage Fury fails to hit the highs of the first two tracks, instead proving to be a more controlled song. Megan’s ability to craft a catchy chorus is still evident here, however the music fails to capture emotion in the same way that Cement and How To Tame Lions does. It is also less musically diverse, opting for a more traditional pop structure.

Teenage Fury is however only a temporary blip as the hauntingly beautiful Halloween follows afterward. Some piano work eerily similar to Cement starts of Halloween; however everything that comes after is pure bliss. Washington delivers another strong chorus that embodies her fantastic vocal range and emotional delivery. I particularly love the line “I talk when I don’t have to” featured in the chorus. Halloween also displays the strongest attention to atmosphere on the EP, with backing synths and vocals creating an almost spooky atmosphere to go along with the song. Just as in How To Tame Lions, Megan rides of a high energy chorus into the second verse to create a highly fluid transition.

Final track Welcome Stranger is an acoustic affair, which builds slowly to a confessional climax. Megan doesn't overstress the instruments, instead letting her voice display the emotion in the song. The EP comes to a gentle halt, directly contrasting with the thunderous way in which it started.

How To Tame Lions builds greatly on Washington’s debut EP Clementine; with more ambitious compositions and a greater focus on atmosphere. Washington is currently recording her first album which is expected to be released during the middle of this year; and if it is anything like this EP you should expect big things.

Essential Tracks: Cement, How To Tame Lions, Halloween

How To Tame Lions is available to purchase at iTunes

How to Tame Lions:

Vampire Weekend - Contra

8.5/10

When Horchata was released as a free download back in October last year, it was met with a huge “meh” from the music industry. Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut was so brimming with creativity and youthful energy that to see them just completely do the same thing on the first track released from Contra was alarming. While not a bad track, Horchata predicted a band trying to recreate exactly what had made them famous in the first place on their sophomore album. Fortunately Horchata only acts as a gateway song, a transition if you will from Vampire Weekend to the engrossing Contra.

While not as immediate as the first album, Contra plays as a better paced and more thought out album. First single Cousins is similar in style to late seventies Elvis Costello songs such as Pump It and Radio Radio. Played at a very fast pace, the track is the most grabbing the first time you listen to the album. Ezra Koenig’s lyrics also tend to mimic Costello’s cynical observational style to a certain extent throughout the album (“The elderly sales clerk won't eye us with suspicion,
The holy motor corporation is giving it's permission” from White Sky).

While Contra is influenced by English artists such as Elvis Costello and The Clash, Vampire Weekend still manage to maintain the afro-pop qualities that made their first album so different to other albums being released at the time. White Sky is the closest thing here to the breakout song A-Punk, starting modestly with glitchy electronics and drum beats, until Chris Tomson’s drums enter the piece. The chorus is probably the catchiest thing on the album, even if it is just Koenig producing some impressive vocal yelps. White Sky also reveals an interest in sampling and looping which continues throughout the rest of the album (most noticeably in Diplomat’s Son where the M.I.A. track Hussel is sampled).

As an album Contra is set up in direct contrast with The Clash’s album Sandinista!, referencing the right-wing militant groups which were set up in opposition to the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua during the seventies and eighties Disappointingly nothing on Contra matches the sheer lunacy of the very disco Sandinista! song Ivan Meets G.I. Joe. However you could put that down to nit-picking, as not many bands could produce a song that crazy.

2008 marked the year that Kings of Leon crossed over from indie-heroes to mainstream stadium-rockers; and Vampire Weekend seem set to make the same sort of transition in 2010. Unlike Kings of Leon though, Vampire Weekend didn’t resort to compromise when it comes to their songs (please ignore the auto-tune on California English, it’s actually quite good). If released as a single, Giving up the Gun seems like the song capable of pushing Vampire Weekend to the top of the charts, and of announcing indie as the style to start of the new decade.

Contra takes a few listens to fully understand, it’s a complicated album. Vampire Weekend places a higher emphasis here on atmosphere and the little things you don’t notice the first few listens, however there are still enough pop gems to keep them firmly in the musical spotlight.

Essential Tracks: Cousins, White Sky, Giving up the Gun, I Think Ur A Contra

Contra is in stores now.

Cousins :

Beach House - Teen Dream

9.5/10

If 2008 single Used to Be suggested anything about Beach House’s next album, it was that it would be a grower. The track focuses around a dual piano/vocal melody, reminiscent of the more vibrant melodies of big sixties acts such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys. The track may not make the most immediate impression, however upon repeated listening its charm and sheer beauty begins to reveal. Unfortunately the album version leaves out the delightfully sweet closer, in favour of Victoria Legrand repeating the line “any day now”. Fortunately this is the only blemish on the first true classic album of this very young decade.

If Beach House (Baltimore duo Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally) channel the ghosts of sixties attention to strong melody, they do it a lot slower than most would dare do it. Similar to Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest, the pace never really lifts higher than that of a stroll, making Teen Dream an album that takes a while to get under your skin; but when it does, it takes a whole lot longer for you to break the addiction. It’s no surprise that Beach House produce music similar to Grizzly Bear; both bands have toured together (Legrand provided vocals for the Grizzly Bear songs Two Weeks and Slow Life). In a 2009 interview Grizzly Bear vocalist Ed Droste cited Beach House as his favourite band.

Album opener Zebra quickly displays Alex Scally’s love for clean, yet understated guitar that almost seems to sparkle. Legrand’s vocals are second to enter, evoking a younger Cat Power only with more confidence. Simple drumming, picked guitars and atmospheric keyboards run the whole of this album, aided by the band’s extraordinary gift for seductive melodies. This template gives the album an undeniable sense of cohesion, however this makes it a difficult album to love straight of as you will tend to think every track sounds the same.

Third track and first single Norway is possibly the album’s best track, drawing upon woozy backing vocals and reverb soaked instrumentals, until bursting into a glorious chorus where Legrand’s relatively high backing vocals are sharply contrasted with her regular singing style. This effect is repeated in album closer Take Care, where Legrand repeats the line “I’ll take care of you, take care of you, that’s true” while harmonising with herself to strong effect.

Teen Dream places tremendous value on atmosphere and melody, however tracks such as Lover of Mine display a surprising love of riffs instead of just mood-driven chords. While the opening riff in Lover of Mine isn’t in the head bangers category usually associated with the art of riffing; it does come across as effortlessly gorgeous and is one of the moments that sticks out from the first listen onwards.

Victoria Legrand’s vocals are a constant hook drawing you into this album. Whether smothered in reverb and surrounded by instruments as in Walk in the Park, or bursting out as in just after the second chorus of Lover of Mine; they are always engaging and very generous in their emotional offerings to the listener. Similar to Bat for Lashes’ singer Natasha Khan, Victoria Legrand has a very special gift for making ordinary situations and occurrences seem extraordinary just through the power of her voice (see Walk in the Park).

Previous albums Beach House and Devotion had always hinted that Beach House had the potential to deliver an album brimming with dream-pop classics, and Teen Dream marks the moment when they fulfilled this early promise. It’s hard to think of this album as anything other than a classic after you truly immerse yourself within its very welcoming and warm depths. Expect Beach House to be one of the most talked about bands of 2010, and hopefully if they continue in this vain, for a very long time.

Essential Tracks: Norway, Lover of Mine, Used to Be, Take Care

Teen Dream is released on the 25th January on the Sub Pop Label

Used To Be: