Feb 26th- Cloud Nothings- The Shadow I Remember

The Only good rock music currently being made is being made by 4th wave emo and post hardcore artists. There is no other good rock. Period. Steve Albini produced. Faster than Joey Ramone with diarrhoea and tight as fuck. This rocks.

February 12th- Glassjaw and Slowthai

So albums released on February 5th were a total bust and if there’s one thing I insist on this block it’s quality music. Therefore this week to make up for Feb 5th it’s a double feature, a bonanza of quality. First up:

Glassjaw- Colouring Book

A decade after its limited release Glassjaw announced the much coveted EP, which previously was only given away at shows on a previous tour, would be getting a full and proper release. Why now? Why the delay? Who really knows it’s Glassjaw and they’ve never been known to do things traditionally. Thankfully a decade’s wait was well worth it. Colouring Book is the best record Glassjaw have made in twenty years. It tones down the screaming for aggressive post hardcore experimentation and it does so rather well.

What’s always stood out with Glassjaw are the jazz inflected broken beat drum rhythms the band employ and they are thankfully ever present here underpinning the sonic experimentation of the guitar work. This experimentation is best employed and most apparent on the last two tracks of the EP, Stations of New Cross and Daytona White. With their soaring vocals and buzzing chainsaw guitars both tracks sound like Glassjaw doing shoegaze and this is no bad thing at all. Both tracks are easily the best things Glassjaw have made since Cosmopolitan Blood Loss.

Many of the vocals here rather than focus on the early all our scream instead use the age old trick quiet chorus loud verse as employed by Pixes, Nirvana et al. It’s a trick which sounds perfect on these experimental tracks and provides a more subtle aggression than ever heard by Glassjaw.

Ten years was certainly worth the wait but now the question remains where do Glassjaw go from here?

And so we come to

Slowthai- Tyron

Let’s start this off quickly and get it over with at the last NME awards British rapper Slowthai who had been adopted as a rapper who did things a little differently made a drunken fool out of himself with some silly comments and a fan fight. It was embarrassing for all concerned and more than a little awkward.

So this is his redemption record.

And what a record it is. Slowthai certainly does some soul searching on tracks like Cancelled but quickly brushes past it with a bravado of judge me by mistakes but you don’t know me. What has always set Slowthai apart as a rapper is his social and political commentary and his soul searching. His is rap which isn’t afraid to confront but personal and political demons and on Tyron Slowthai does both expertly.

Tracks like NHS very obviously hit right at the heart of issues in Britain whilst Vex and I tried focus on Slowthai himself. The album is one of two differing lyrical approaches but rather than separate the tracks by theme Slowthai cleverly breaks things up by sound with the more aggressive sounding tracks at the forefront and the back end of the album more meditative, it makes for an interesting and unique way of breaking up a rap album and again helps to show that Slowthai really is a person with more to him than first meets the eye.

Welcome back Slowthai all is forgiven.