Filed under: album, review | Tags: 2009, amit chadda, anja mccloskey, ben urdang, blue giant, charlene soraia, charlotte richardson andrews, corin tucker, josephine oniyama, kid you'll move mountains, laleh, mia boyle, music, mv and ee, nancy wallace, pilori, pocahaunted, shrag, simon christopher, the golden road, viva voce
February already!? Yikes. Here are 11 releases we didn’t get time to review in full last month…
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Blue Giant
Target Heart EP •
Amore!Phonics
Blue Giant, a supposed Portland ‘supergroup’, toured with The Shins in 2007 and consists of members of The Decemberists, Swords and, principally, Viva Voce’s songwriting and marital team of Kevin and Anita Robinson. How then did they end up sounding so drab? Target Heart, their debut EP, is disappointingly full of blandly unimpressive Americana that would doubtless serve well as background catalogue music for a roadtrip movie, or better still a roadtrip scene in ‘Gilmore Girls’, but is otherwise limp and generic. Even a duet between Kevin Robinson and Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker flounders without discernable purpose. If you like Animal Liberation Orchestra or Jack Johnson you might like this, it’s the same kind of inoffensive rural rock, seasoned with a mild Southern flavour. With four of the EP’s six songs coming in at less than the time it takes to soft boil an egg, the only time it really hits the mark is after 19 minutes when, blessedly, it ends. Phew.
Simon Christopher
UK release date: 19/01/09; www.myspace.com/bluegiantland
