W/e 12/07/24 - The Dreaded Laramie, Kasabian, The Rifles, Kissin Dynamite, David Bowie

The Dreaded Laramie take this week. Sam gets the :-) and Simon the :-(.

Andy

The Rifles - I've always disliked The Rifles based entirely on the guitarist thinking he's a character because he wears a hat. Well now I can add their music to my list of cons. Weak indie with a singer for some reason doing a bad Suggs impression 4

Kasabian - On the other hand I really liked Kasabian back in the day and even stuck with them when they went a bit techno, but then Tom beat his missus up and Serge was left in charge to make whatever this is, peaking (troughing?) lyrically with Algorithms, which might be the first instance of art being improved if they let AI have a go at it 3

Kissin' Dynamite - Solid bit of hair metal. If it was made in the US or UK you'd expect some jokiness but as these lads are German it's deadly serious and comes off as something that could easily have been released in 1985 and was only just being reinvigorated by appearing on the Peacemaker soundtrack 6

The Dreaded Laramie - Indie girl summer! Reminds me a lot of the Linda Lindas brilliant album from a couple of years back. Very much the sort of thing that should be on the FR stage at Reading 7

TotW - Communion by The Dreaded Laramie

David Bowie - Absolute corker innit? Moonage Daydream and Starman are two of my favourite pop songs of all time and this album has them net to each other!! Let the children boogie indeed 9

Sam

The Rifles : perfectly ok indie with a bit of East London bounce : 6.7

Kasabian : a mixed bag as if they don’t quite know which direction to head in . 6.5

Kissin Dynamite: lyrically a tad outdated and obvious but I like ze German metal ja ! 7

The Dreaded Laramie : yeah baby ! I would definitely watch them live . This week’s winners with 8.1.

TOTW Communion by Dreaded Laramie .

SOTW : Call by Kasabian- almost sounded like they were taking the piss

David Bowie : I always thought Bowie had passed me by . But this is a well

Made , smart slice of glam rock . Nice one Erol . 8

Justin

The Rifles - pretty solid indie I thought. Not much else to say 6.5

Kasabian - Not as good as some older Kasabian but still a good electriconica/rock album 6.9

Kissin' Dymamite - nothing wrong with a bit of Van Halen style spandex. 6.6

The Dreaded Laramie - indie girl rock is not really for me. Not bad but not world changing.6.4

Totw GOAT - Kasabian

David Bowie - timeless classic. Just hasn't aged. 9

Simon

Rifles: apparently this lot have been around for a while, but I've never heard of them and listening to this I don't think I've missed out on much - lightweight JJ with a very Suggs-like vocal. 5

Kasabian: I seem to remember liking the first Kasabian album but not sure what's going on here - they've thrown a bit of everything at this, and the lack of coherence results in a very uneven album. 5.5

Kissin' Dynamite: all the classic heavy metal clichés present and correct - big hair, corny lyrics, ludicrous guitar solos, etc. Would have been better if they'd sung it in their native German because at least then I wouldn't have understood the lyrics. 3

The Dreaded Laramie: nothing particularly original or groundbreaking, but a nice blast of jaunty and spirited indie rock - easily the best on offer this week. 6.5

David Bowie: not that familiar with Bowie's early stuff bar the big hits, but this is just class from start to finish - really need to delve into his back catalogue in more detail. 8.5

TotW: The Dreaded Laramie - Communion

Guy

The Rifles - I find this quite easy to listen to. It’s not pulling up any trees and it does sound a bit like the bastard child of the Jam and Madness but the tunes are mostly pretty catchy (All Aboard and Money go Round in particular) – 6.5

Kasabian – I don’t feel quite as negative as Andy to this. Albeit I see his point. It’s not as good as past albums and there are also a few proper stinkers on here. Feels a bit like Rock ‘n’ Roll by numbers in places – 6

Kissin’ Dynamite – Felt like I’d taken a time-machine back to the 80s with this one. It had the benefit of not being one of those really screechy metal albums but it was a bit of a pastiche and nothing to get excited about – 5

The Dreaded Laramie – Much more fun than some of the others and definitely a bit different. Kind of pop-like with an indie rock soundtrack. I quite liked it to start with for that reason, but it did start to grate a bit after a while and lost some momentum. The last song is a good one though – 7

David Bowie – slick album and overall pretty timeless. The big ones are big. Some of the others less memorable, which has pulled my score down a little – 8.3

TOTW - Where’s My Crystal Ball - The Dreaded Laramies

Erol

The Rifles - decent easy listening indie-ish tunes. It does have a hint of a Madness copy but I don’t think they’re trying to sound like them. They just do naturally. 6.5

Kasabian - when these guys released Processed Beats and Club Foot I was blown away. Much of their output since has been of mixed quality but they still seem as popular as ever. This offering is decent enough and has some crowd pleasing moments. It’s just lacking musical direction, so much so that I no longer really know what Kasian are about. 7

Kissin’ Dynamite - now we’re talking. This is straight out of the 80s big hair and tight leather trousers play book. I’ve heard it all before but not for a while. Massively over blown guitar solos, slightly naff sexist lyrics and big sing along power vocals. Great fun all round! 8

The Dreaded Laramie - this was mostly irritating throughout. The vocalist has a hugely annoying voice and the tunes weren’t that much better. Not really for me. 4

TOTW - Kasabian, GOAT

David Bowie - he was one of my musical heroes in my youth. This was one of those albums that I first heard in my early teens and I still like it just as much now. So many good tunes and the lyrics and performance are second to none. 9.3

Jim

Rifles 5

Pretty lame indie . At its high points reminded of Danny Goffey but these were fleeting

Kasabian 5

I’ve always been a bit hot and cold with these guys. All their previous albums have a few bangers without getting into classic territory, and the last one was really good. But this was a massive step down, all over the place, neither rocky nor dance enough. No TOTW but a few SOTW contenders

Kissin Dynamite 4

Pretty lame hair-band metal . At its high points… oh no, scrub that.

The Dreaded Laramie 7.5

The best and most interesting of the week by far. Power pop with a grungy edge.

TOTW The Dreaded Laramie - Communion

SOTW Kissing Dynamite - Not A Wise Man

Bowie 9

Cool as fuck, his best tracks are up there with the very best . Would love to have been around when he was in his pomp

Mark

The Rifles - all perfectly listenable but very basic and unadventurous, musically and lyrically - 6

Kasabian - thought this was a bit schizophrenic, veering from manic drum and bass to smooth dance pop which lacked the edge of their early albums. Coming Back To Me Good is a nice summery gentle head nodder, and while it can't go too wrong in just 28 minutes it feels a little insubstantial - 6.5

Kissing Dynamite - okay as far as it goes, but it's basically an update on the Def Leppard eighties hair metal look and sound that I wasn't wild about first time around - 5

The Dreaded Laramie - spunky punky indie girl pop, some decent power pop and several tune of the week contenders - 7

TOTW - I Should Go , by Dreaded Laramie

Matt

The Rifles - nice enough laddish indie, with that that nostalgia for pre-kid days you often get on third/fourth albums. 5.5

Kasabian - I honestly didn't mind this. Nice variety of energetic songs. 6.

Kissing Dynamite - more like Touching Cloth. 4

The Dreaded Laramie - sparky and spiky girl meets guitar keeping it short and sweet. 6.8

Totw Breakup Songs, The Dreaded Laramie

David Bowie, The Rise and Fall etc. Some stone cold classics but, dare I say it a bit one-note. 7