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Cage the Elephant: Unpeeled at Le Trabendo in Paris, France 

Photos: Sharon Lopez

Leila Ricca 

October 24, 2017

Known for their energetic live performances characterized by spectacular crowd-surfs, lively festival sets, and sometimes eccentric looks, Cage the Elephant surprisingly maintained their live charisma within the intimacy and uniqueness of this exclusive acoustic show.

While in Paris to open for the Rolling Stones' three stadium shows, the American rock band announced two special headlining dates: an electric show on the 18th of October and an acoustic one on the 24th. After Grammy-winning album Tell Me I’m Pretty, the group released ‘Unpeeled’, a live acoustic album featuring the band’s biggest hits and covers accompanied by string arrangements. These “unpeeled” versions come from various concerts from their USA tour, making this acoustic show in Paris an unprecedented and unique event.

“As you might have noticed, this show is a little different”, stated lead vocalist Matt Shultz after opening the concert with a touching and rich performance of ‘How Are You True’. The relatively small venue gathered an intimate and harmonious audience in front of a really small stage. Radically different to the Élysée Montmartre, a spacious venue with a vast stage where the band performed last January, Le Trabendo was unexpectedly well suited to this surprisingly intimate performance, with a powerful sound and a warm atmosphere. Matt Shultz established his stage presence in a striking way within this unusual setting. Refusing the static presence one could have expected from such a show, Shultz fully occupied the limited stage that was available to him, and used this rare closeness with the public to interact differently with it. Instead of giving this impression of being trapped – or should I say caged -, he managed to use the space limitation in order to further enhance the intimacy, but also occupied it fully with impressive dance moves and liveliness. It is no wonder that Cage the Elephant are opening for the Rolling Stones given the similarities between Shultz and Jagger: from movements, energy and presence to facial expressions and some vocals, the resemblance is remarkable.

Three Point Perspective: Arctic Monkeys Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

Freda Looker

The long-awaited Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino graced us with its epic release last Friday. Without a single released prior to the Monkey’s first San Diego show at The Observatory North Park since AM’s 2013 release, fans were left with the question of what the new era would sound like. With Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino finally being released, there are several themes that are spread throughout the tracks such as the importance of cell phones in modern society, and the effects of fame. ‘Star Treatment’ kicks off the album with Alex reflecting on his past times before the fame. Followed by ‘One Point Perspective’, a much darker track which seems to involve questioning fame once again and how it affects the band. Both ‘American Sports’ and ‘The Ultracheese’ from the very first second consist of Johnny Cash and Bowie’s spacey vibes. There’s no surprise that the band decided to incorporate a tad of Bowie in their new album after The Last Shadow Puppets decided to cover Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream’ during their Everything You’ve Come To Expect tour. The title track and ‘Science Fiction’ are lyrically the most creative listens. With lines such as, “Jesus in the day spa, filling out the information form’, and “Reflections in the silver screen of strange societies, swamp monster with a hard-on for connectivity”, reminding me of how much more lyrically impressive Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino is compared to AM. The transition specifically between ‘Golden Trunks’ and what seems to be most fan’s favoured track ‘Four Out of Five’ is a definite pick me up from ‘Golden Trunks’ dark political lines, “Bendable figures with a fresh new pack of lies” and a person’s blind devotion ‘“When true love takes a grip, it leaves you without a choice”. When the album’s titles were released ‘The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip’ intrigued most. Assuming that there will be a heavy guitar riff or a similar AM ‘R U Mine?’ sound from the ‘roughness’ of the title was the complete opposite. What ‘The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip’ brings is the most Suck It and See throwback feelings. The chorus throughout ‘She Looks Like Fun’ being the most intriguing with Alex referring to modern society scrolling through their Instagram feeds, “Good morning/Cheeseburger/Snowboarding”. ‘Batphone’ continues this theme of technology and how individuals aren’t living in ‘the reality’. Overall, it seems that opinions have been split from fans of AM’s 2013 era, but I personally am completely lyrically blown away from Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino’s entirety. It’s almost like a continuation of Everything You’ve Come To Expect with similar sounds of ‘The Bourne Identity’ and ‘Aviation’, but minus Miles. With new the additions of the piano, and synthesizers I believe that they have enhanced the new direction that the Monkey’s have stepped toward and I already can’t wait for what they’ll decide to make next.

Leila Ricca

Four out of five stars on Arctic Monkeys’ comeback ‘Tranquillity Base Hotel and Casino’

After five years of silence, the Arctic Monkeys make their much-awaited return with surprising and hypnotic ‘Tranquillity Base Hotel and Casino’. Perfectly managing to avoid self-parody or stylistic repetitions, this new album appears as a startling reinvention, a meandering and puzzling journey beyond known territories. Just like mankind first set foot on the moon on the ‘Tranquillity base’ site, the Arctic Monkeys disembark in an unknown universe in which they reveal a new, unexpected aspect of themselves.

It would be difficult to distinguish a single in this album: unlike 2013 structured indie rock success ‘AM’, ‘Tranquillity Base Hotel and Casino’ appears as a puzzle, a tangled enigma with no apparent solution, the value of which precisely resides in this sophisticated lack of clarity. As the album opens with the bewitching track ‘Star Treatment’, one is confounded in disorientation, before eventually letting the album settle a logic of its own. Some songs appear nearly unconstructed, yet simultaneously refined and complex, echoing the way in which the lyrics present a dense yet also elliptic unique form of prose, like a stream of consciousness, melodically unfolding itself. Turner’s deep and captivating voice strongly reminds of Gainsbourg’s early 70s half-spoken verses, sometimes erudite and poetic, sometimes full of derision, such as on the opening line of the album: ‘I just wanted to be one of the Strokes’. A sense of irony, or at least of strong self-awareness emerges throughout the tracks of the album, reflecting a conscious decision to move away from an older musical style that it would make no sense to replicate, in order to engage in a necessary and well-executed new path.

‘Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino’ however seems to reflect Turner’s personal evolution more than it presents a real fruition of the Arctic Monkeys as a band, and the instrumentals, although displaying intense and elegant arrangements, create a harmonious echo to the vocals rather than they truly establish the band’s presence. The addition of the piano accompanying Turner’s reflective vocals partially replaces Helder’s vibrant drums that helped define the band’s early albums and marks a notable shift, both asserting a form of musical maturity, and avowing the forfeiture of a constitutive element of the band’s sound. ‘Tranquillity base hotel & casino’ seems to retain a sense of continuity with Turner’s side project The Last Shadow Puppets, and particularly of their 2016 album ‘Everything You’ve Come to Expect’, although it appears to be more intricate and subtle in many of its aspects. Final song ‘Ultracheese’ captures the best this album has to offer, presenting a rich and magnetic journey in this captivating new universe.

Despite its obviously divisive aspects, this album undeniably presents an extremely successfully crafted creation, a melodic and truly bewitching masterpiece. ‘Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino’ reflects the Arctic Monkeys’ ability to transcend genres and provide their audience with impressive yet always effective transformations.

Sarah Beckford

The year is 2018 and the Arctic Monkeys have returned. To celebrate their return, they’ve given us their sixth record, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. And yes, though it’s 2018, this album feels like it belongs right in between vinyl copies of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and David Bowie record. With this record, one has to remember this album isn’t the sequel to AM, nor it should it be viewed as its heir. This is a record that’s beyond its years that also dwells in the time before it, and it’s more conceptual than full story sometimes- nonetheless it’s still a record.

The album starts with ‘Star Treatment,’ a glittering Bowie-esque opening that’s chock full of jazz tones, vocal effects, and piano. Here, Alex Turner plays the reflective celebrity, singing in whispery echoed tones about how he wishes he was one of the Strokes, or just someone unforgettable. Peppered with pop culture references and metaphor, ‘Star Treatment’ is sultry and mysterious, as if Turner’s singing in dim light surrounded by fog and old-school movie lights.

After ‘Star Treatment’ is ‘One Point Perspective,’ has an opening much like the opening piano notes of Panic! At the Disco’s ‘Nine in the Afternoon,’ but has a much different mood than the aforementioned. This song instrumentally blends classical elements with lounge music and is reflective like the blues as Turner, or at least the song’s character laments former dreams and youthful aspirations. The music helps fill in the gaps on this track a great deal, as there are a number of instrumental breaks. The album then abruptly shifts into the spoken-word like ‘American Sports,’ is a veiled commentary on the similarities and differences between the fictional society described in the album and present-day- “Breaking news, they take the truth and make it fluid…A montage of the latest ancient ruins/Soundtracked by a chorus of "You don't know what you're doing"”.

The album’s title track is woozy and moody, and Turner uses his voice and volume to make for an interesting narration to the story presented in the song. He gives us a slightly morose and faraway idea of what exactly we’re supposed to visualize- as if we’re staring at Earth right from this supposed lunar resort’s call center. But Turner paints life there is not all that it’s what it’s cracked up to be as he sings, “And do you celebrate your dark side/Then wish you'd never left the house? /Have you ever spent a generation trying to figure that one out?”. ‘Golden Trunks,’ is possibly unintentional political commentary, but besides that, much like the rest of the album, it uses metaphor and lyric to graze pointed satire and musings about society, which is a prevalent theme on the album. It’s as if perpetually being in this world that Turner’s created moves one to think more and open up as well, considering this is the closest thing we have to a love song on this album.

Next is ‘Four Out of Five,’ which possibly wins the prize for fan favorite. ‘Four Out of Five’ is the grounding track, the one that sounds the most like the quintessential Arctic Monkeys we’re familiar with since the song is the perfect balance of mysterious but quotable lyrics, a catchy bassline, and an outro that drives one to hit the replay button. Lyrically, the song further explains the concept of Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino, while also leaving fans to wonder the intricacies of an information-action ratio, the idea that we have a myriad of information that we’ve no idea how to deal with.  ‘The World’s First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip’ discusses the instantaneous nature of technology and Turner wonders if its effects are positive or not- and yes, the title of the song was somehow wonderfully in the lyrics, which is a feat all on its own. ‘Science Fiction’ asks for a lasting impression that might be temporary- “So I tried to write a song to make you blush/But I’ve a feeling that the whole thing/May well just end up too clever for its own good/The way some science fiction does”.  ‘She Looks Like Fun’ is the most lyrically confusing yet genius track on the record, with a chorus so bizarre it almost makes sense, but doesn’t. The album closes with ‘The Ultracheese,’ a piano-heavy track that brings the album back to where it started- a reflection upon what’s been gained, lost, and blurred through celebrity and life in general. It’s a beautiful, downtempo ballad between a man, his mind, and his piano that provides a clearer close to a record that’s quite interesting.

Hinds return with a new album for you, ‘I Don’t Run’

Leila Ricca 

After their 2016 debut album ‘Leave Me Alone’ and the release of three singles in the past weeks (‘New for you’, ‘The Club’, and ‘Finally floating’), Hinds reveal this second record and its outstanding genuineness. With their distinguishable sunbathed authenticity, the Madrid-based four-piece uncover a new, sometimes more reflective side of their music, while further asserting their distinct lo-fi unpolished sound.  

Guitarists and vocalists Ana Perrote and Carlotta Cosials join their lively, rough, yet sometimes surprisingly harmonious vocals in a symbiosis that could be vaguely guessed in previous tracks and truly establishes itself as a central element of this new record. Through reflections and echoes, exchanges and overlapping lines, their voices create a form of complementary duality, pushed to its climax in tracks such as ‘Echoing my name’. Surprisingly melodic ‘Linda’ creates a nostalgic halt between more energetic songs, and reflects the range of emotions and moods Hinds manage to convey without ever losing their central uniqueness.

In this record, Hinds gain a stronger voice, and a richer instrumental composition. Bassist Ade Martin creates an essential yet evolving musical structure to the liveliness of the record, and drummer Amber Grimbergen truly affirms her fundamental contribution to the band’s sound in ‘Finally Floating’. Opening track ‘The Club’ appears as the quintessential Hinds song, a perfect inauguration of the record, and encloses the listener in the dazed atmosphere of Hinds’ universe: ‘From now on, it’s our presentation card’, said the band. Contrastingly, the final song ‘Ma Nuit’ unearths a more vulnerable side, mixing the usual English lyrics with their native Spanish as well as some French verses, which create a universal subtlety to this touching track. By exposing the difficulty of intertwining the shared world of touring, and the intimacy of personal stories, this songs discloses a new sense of melancholy perhaps unseen in Hinds’ earlier work.

In fact, this second album seems to have an additional dimension, a deeper, more intense aspect that confirms Hinds’ musical identity, while at the same time revealing a new complexity of their sound and lyrics. Without the pretentions of innovating, their authenticity and the clear effort put in the creation of this record is an exact image of the band’s musical truthfulness.

“I Was a Fool” - Sunflower Bean’s new single

Leila Ricca

Rock En Seine Festival: Day 3 (FR)

Leila Ricca

August 27, 2017

On the third day of its 15th edition, the Parisian festival welcomed a large range of artists and genres, combining electronic music, classic rock, pop, hip hop, and soul. From the eccentric Lemon Twigs to The XX, who headlined and sensationally closed the weekend, here are some of the most remarkable acts from this Sunday’s line up.

King Khan and the Shrines

Setting himself as a literal King surrounded by an army of musicians, the Berlin-based artist graced the main stage with a performance characterized by a rare vitality. The fully occupied stage entirely embraced the presence of every band member, from the dancers with tambourines to the golden capes of the brass players playing through the crowd. The trace of Khan’s punk debuts manifested itself in his surprising costume and the energy of his performance. Musically, the rawness of garage punk gained a further subtlety with the presence of brass instruments, as well as components of soul music. In this perfect mix of punk and soul, the band’s performance was marked by a few strong and positive political statements, engaging the crowd to show its support for black power by raising fists or referring to French punk band Berurier Noir’s famous “la jeunesse emmerde le front national”. Khan’s use of French didn’t limit itself to the denunciation of contemporary fascism: the lead singer regularly addressed the crowd in its language, for instance when presenting his daughter on stage or introducing songs. With a   grandiose closure after an original and empowering show, the band left a noticeable positivity throughout the crowd and gave a perfect opening of the festival’s main stage on this final day.