Pelican - What We All Come To Need

Pelican is one of those bands that hardly make a bad record. His discography is probably one of the most consistent of the post-metal scene and "What We All Need To Come," their fourth album, is not exception. In it, these young masters of metal plays long pieces of heavy music full of chiaroscuros in which Trevor de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec guitars continue alternating distorted riffs and chords, full of power, with moments of lightness and, if we can use the term, a certain delicacy, playing an instrumental heavy metal that at times approaches to progressive rock, post-rock and stoner rock. For some tracks the band includes Greg Anderson (Sunn o)))) and Aaron Turner (Isis) in addition to Allen Epley (Shiner) vocals in "Final Breath", first non-instrumental song recorded by the quartet (although actually this does not improves the sound of the band). Perhaps slightly more relaxed (so to say) than "City Of Echoes" or "The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw", "What We All Need To Come" stay at the same level as their predecessors but specially keeps the well known Pelican´s dark power. -CORANNIEIT-

Pelican, What We All Come To Need
Southern Lord Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site

Joaquín Sabina - Vinagre y Rosas

Sabina breaks a 4-year silence with "Vinagre y Rosas" a generous album that includes 14 tracks with the classic "Sabina stamp": elaborate, poetic and smart lyrics. Songs full of sensibility but also with touches of cynicism and black humor. Musically, accompanied by his inseparables pals "Pancho" Varona and Antonio Garcia de Diego, Sabina walks on several roads from ballads to blues and from disguised "rancheras" to New Orleans sound and even 2 or 3 rock songs that he was debt us for a long time. So, along about an hour we're found in "Vinagre y Rosas" the different faces of Sabina: the eternal love's outsider in "Tiramisú de Limón" and "Agua Pasada", the incorrigible in-his-sixties, and picky father in law, in "Viudita de Clicquot" and "Oh! Carmela ", the bard of the times in "Crisis" (surprisingly rocker) and the lifetime rebel in "Violetas Para Violeta", some kind of adaptation of chilean songwriter Violeta Parra song "La Carta", converted by Sabina and company in an exquisite blues that the pace of military drums close the album with Sabina singing "Preguntale a los milicos/Que hicieron en La Moneda" (Ask the milicos (militaries)/What have they done in "La Moneda"). So, showing a great shape, Sabina deliver his fifteen album. A great album. Long life to "El Flaco". -CORANNIEIT-

Joaquín Sabina, Vinagre y Rosas
Sony BMG, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site

Soulsavers - Broken

Third album from English musicians and producers Rich Machin and Ian Glover who have created an exceptional album, musically sophisticated but emotionally raw, in which they composed all the music and for vocals called for a multitude of partners led by Mark Lanegan (ex-Queen Of The Stone Age) and Australian Rosa Agostino (best known as "Red Ghost") but which also involve Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantomas, etc..), Jason Pierce (Spiritualized) and Richard Hawley. "Broken" is a brilliant and thrilling album that walks rock, soul and some blues giving us over an hour of dense, sensual and dark music, with a delicacy that contrasts, and is complements at the same time, with Lanegan's rough and slummy voice (perhaps one of the best kept secrets, and wasted talents, of the American scene) reaching moments of absolute beauty and emotion. From the poignant desolation of "You Will Miss Me When I Burn" (original by Bonnie "Prince" Billy) to the hopeful "By My Side", "Broken" is a profound and luminous record. A masterpiece. -CORANNIEIT-

Soulsavers, Broken
V2 Records, 2009

Links:
Official Website
My Space Website

Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg

Wolfmother broke out loudly in 2005 with a superb debut album, in which they exploited their power-trio formation playing an impetuous hard rock, strong and with a remarkable freshness despite its obvious references to the seventies sound of bands such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. After 4 years, an internal fight that left Andrew Stockdale, guitarist and singer, as the only original member of the band, and a change of lineup that includes a second guitar in the hands of Aidan Nemeth, the nowadays quartet presents "Cosmic Egg", their second album, in which they maintain the direct evocations to 70's hard sound but it seems that on this occasion Stockdale bets for a simpler and raw sound leaving aside the elaborated and semi-progressive passages of his previous record going now more to stoner and hard rock in its purest form. With a first part with a lot of punch but without any transcendent, "Cosmic Egg" go better from the second half with solid songs in which they recover some of the freshness and vitality of "Wolfmother" album doing songs like "In The Castle", "Phoenix", "10,000 Feet", which flirt with heavy metal (including a riff that evokes "Kashmir" by Led Zep) and even "Far Away", some kind of power-ballad. At the end, "Cosmic Egg" is a just good enough to muddle through but without the brilliance of its predecessor. -CORANNIEIT-

Wolfmother, Cosmic Egg
Interscope Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site