Reviews roundup – Flight 49 vs. Planet Full Of Blues vs. Fiona Bevan vs. Copernicus

Reviews roundup – Flight 49 vs. Planet Full Of Blues vs. Fiona Bevan vs. Copernicus

FLIGHT 49
That Smell Of Sweat And Sin
self released

We’re off to Llandudno in Welsh Wales for our first selection.  I’ve been to Llandudno, and think of it fondly, as the only Welsh town where I’ve been chatted up by a gay waiter in a Mexican restaurant I’d taken my wife to for an anniversary meal.  Serves me right for wearing those cowboy boots.  I did look rather dashing.

Anyway, Flight 49 are relatively new on the scene, forming back in 2011, and this is their debut EP.  And it’s pretty good, for a first out of the block effort.  It’s fairly down the middle modern rock, the kind of thing you would expect from people who think that Foo Fighters are musically adventurous.

However, there are moments when they have a collective flashback to the heady days of rap metal and go all Linkin Park on you, and an extra point for having a go at covering the Dolly Parton tune, ‘9 to 5’.  The best of the originals is definitely ‘Rage’ and that’s the way they should be pointing themselves.  At least they’ve got a sense of humour, if the hat, cow tipping and press bumph is anything to go by, and I look forward to the next one.

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PLANET FULL OF BLUES
Hard Landing
self released

I rather enjoyed the debut album from Planet Full Of Blues, so this follow up was most welcome.  It’s more of the same, but if you get a good groove going, why mess with it.

So it’s blues rock, with a hint of Chicago about it.  They’re happy to throw in a funky twist now and then, and even the odd country shuffle, just to make sure you’re paying attention at the back.  Singer and guitarist Johnny Ray Light hasa very listenable voice and the rhythm section of Ron Dameron and Brock Howe keep things tight and loose, not an easy trick to perform.

There are plenty of tunes worth a second listen, with ‘Mashed Potatoes And Gravy’ and ‘Snake Lady’ top of the pile.  They’re better at the fast tunes, so ‘I Had A Dream’ saw me reaching for the skip button, but it’s the only moment I didn’t enjoy on a thoroughly enjoyable release.

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FIONA BEVAN
Talk To Strangers
Navigator

Some folk now from British / Canadian singer / songwriter Fiona Bevan.  We won’t mention the fact that she co-wrote a hit for One Direction, along with Ed Sheeran, because that would be a very bad thing.  Sheeran, that is, not One Direction.

So, with her Adam Ant days firmly behind her, she’s off and running on her debut full length offering, and it’s really rather good.  For sure, it’s chock full of hippy drippy musings on life, but she usually remembers to chuck in a melody and a chorus, something I regard as essential, but which is fast fading from modern life.

However, it’s the kind of thing that is treated as Proper Music in upper case, by the people who know about this sort of thing, and insist upon telling us even though we don’t want to know, and will end up playing the 2 CD Hot Chocolate Best Of instead.  But Ms Bevan has enough good songs up her sleeve to escape that, and numbers like ‘Slo Mo Tiger Glo’ and ‘Us And The Darkness’, which are good enough to escape the inevitable advert soundtracking.

Joanna Newsom fans will like this.  And so will Tori Amos fans if you’re too old to know who Joanna Newsom is.  And if you’re too old to know who Tori Amos is, congratulations.

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COPERNICUS
Immediate Eternity II
Nevermore

You know when you were a wee bairn, and there was always that Uncle that people used to talk about without actually talking about him.  “Oh, aye, yer Uncle Boaby, he’s no quite the thing ye know, best keep away fae him”.  And he wasn’t even a real Uncle, he’d be a cousin of an Uncle by marriage who invited himself to everything, and they’d always seat him in the corner of the room with his back to the wall, so everyone could keep an eye on him.

Well that’s what this sounds like.

Apparently, this is some kind of freeform jazz poetry jam type thing, but as I believe I mentioned before, this is actually the kind of thing that should have a white van and some burly orderlies turning up in the middle of the night to take it away, for its own, and societys, good.

On the plus side, it probably keeps Joseph Smalkowski (aka Copernicus) away from street corners, where his given place involves shuffling from side to side in an approximation of a tap dance, whilst begging for change, and shouting about the invasion of the Aghartians.  It almost makes Captain Beefheart listenable.  Almost.

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