★★★★★


Five Stars

In an interview with Cherwell last term Brian Briggs, Stornoway’s lead singer, promised a more mature second album “about growing up” and with an extra sense of escapism, where the band name “seems to fit even better, [compared to first album ‘Beachcomber’s Windowsill’] in a more remote and slightly wilder place.” Bold claims from the frontman of the Oxford based band, but ones that are most definitely met.

From the opening whirling organ chords and the loose and slightly psychedelic drum groove of ‘You Take Me As I Am,’ — outlining Briggs’ wedding day and reminiscent, for myself at least, of Bruce Springsteen’s second offering The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle — the album instantly implements the sense of escapism Briggs alluded to at the band’s homecoming show at the Oxford Town Hall on February 15^th.   

Jonathan Quin, the keyboard player/multi-instrumentalist for the band and ex-Oxford postgraduate music student, creates complex yet seemingly infectious arrangements to accompany Briggs’s heartfelt delivery of his sincere lyrical content which effortlessly floats above the musical texture, never dominating yet somehow also never intruded upon. The chorus of the first single, ‘Knock Me On the Head’ showcases these infectious arrangements in all their glory with the syncopated musical undercurrents being supplemented by four-part vocal harmony that is in direct contrast to the driving, and almost motoric, verse keyboard synth and drum accompaniment.

Stornoway are a band firmly rooted in Oxford, with Briggs and Quin having met at Wolfson College during their time as postgraduates there. Briggs was researching bird activity on the Thames whilst Quin was interested in Russian folk song. They spoke of “zorbing through Cowley” during their first album and subsequent hit single. Whilst there are no obvious direct references to Oxford in Tales from Terra Firma, song titles such as the stripped back and acoustic ‘The Great Procrastinator’ (performed on the balcony of the town hall on February 15^th) with lyrics such as “I’m a scientist with far too many metaphors and far too little data to conclude in time” seem to coincide with the predicaments and day-to-day life of the Oxford student particularly well!  

Although, as previously mentioned, the complex and stylistically interwoven arrangements of earlier tracks such as ‘You Take Me As I Am’ and another infectious pop-hit ‘The Bigger Picture’ are particularly enjoyable, and induce a certain amount of uncontrollable foot-stomping and embarrassing head-bobbing, the stand-out track award for me would definitely go to the final offering of ‘November Song.’ A simple folk tune comparable to some early Bob Dylan or Simon & Garfunkel perhaps, it offers the perfect closure to a great album with pure simplicity. Sang microphone and amp-less live, the silence throughout the crowd on each performance speaks volumes (link below) and for me, perhaps, it is the memory of the Town Hall on that February night and the sense of electricity that was present during ‘November Song’ which leads to my claiming that a simple folk-song, the dregs of the album if you like, is a “stand-out track.” Nonetheless, it offers the perfect reflective end to an escapist and reflective album, ambitious as a second offering but completely justified without falling into the “second album trap.” Definitely worth a listen. 

★★★★☆
Four Stars

2013 is full of exciting new guitar bands, and Birmingham seems to be producing more than its fair share, with JAWS, Swim Deep and most exciting  of all, Peace. Their impossibly infectious hooks and unforgettable guitar riffs first burst into the public’s consciousness in September 2012 on Peace’s wonderful EP Delicious, as well as their debut single, future stadium-filler ‘Follow Baby’. An opening slot on the NME Awards Tour with Palma Violets, Miles Kane and Django Django propelled them further towards the stardom their music warranted as they quickly became one of the growing number of bands being touted for success without so much as an album to their name.

Under the potentially crushing weight of expectation, Peace have done the impossible, and produced a truly excellent album. We’re eased into In Love by ‘Higher Than The Sun’, which roams wildly through different sounds in the psychedelic style that you’d have to expect from the band’s name and album title. If Peace have set out to be the least Googleable band ever, it’s only because they want you, when searching for them, to come across various discourses on Peace & Love and immerse yourself in the Summer of Love ideology that’s clearly had so much of an influence over them.

We would never have thought it possible, but songs like ‘Wraith’ and ‘Follow Baby’, already so familiar to fans of Peace, find new life in the context of In Love. We really couldn’t care less that ‘you could be my Ice Age sugar’, as Harry Koisser croons, means absolutely nothing at all, because we’re already completely lost in a swirling realm of colours, shapes and pure happiness. Douglas Castle on lead guitar deserves considerable credit; his soaring riffs and skittering solos lend momentum to the whole work, perfectly complementing Koisser’s brilliantly varied vocals.

A perfect balance is struck throughout between the irrepressible energy of the beginning as Peace gather speed through the recklessly powerful ‘Follow Baby’ and ‘Lovesick’ and the smoky haze of the album’s close, as ‘California Daze’ makes us feel for all the world like we’re lounging by the pool in 40 degrees sun without a care in the world. Nowhere is this balance better displayed than on ‘Float Forever’, which builds from a stripped-down start, a slow, solitary electric guitar as Koisser soulfully commands us to “sit atop the Eiffel in your mind”, to ranging, anthemic riffs and crashing cymbals.

The band’s Britpop influences can’t be denied, and a criticism of In Love would be that it’s essentially just a product of what’s come before: Post-Post-Britpop with rehashed psychedelia thrown in for good measure. But through this they manage to evoke nostalgia for a time when they weren’t even old enough to appreciate music (and I wasn’t even alive!), which has got to count for something. Peace sound a bit like Blur, act a bit like Marilyn Manson (Douglas Castle once stumbled into me in a nightclub shouting “Where are the fucking toilets?”) and feel a bit like it’s 1969, man.

Ken Loach’s latest film opens with joyous celebration. It’s 1945 and Britain has emerged victorious from years of conflict with Germany. There is dancing in the streets and a sense of communal achievement.

Yet May 1945 did not mark the end of Britain’s troubles. The urban landscape had been ravaged by bombs, and much of the remaining inner city housing was not worth keeping. Millions of British people were living in dreadful conditions: filthy, overcrowded slums with woefully inadequate toilet facilities. Loach employs a series of moving testimonies to illustrate the poverty of the time. One man speaks of how he slept alongside his siblings in a bed infested with insects, while another recounts hearing his mother dying in childbirth for want of adequate medical provision.

Within months of VE Day, a general election was held. Despite leading Britain throughout the war, Churchill lost in favour of a landslide Labour victory. The war effort had proven that the nation could achieve anything if they worked together, and the public were determined that Britain would not be dragged back to the thirties. The openly socialist agenda which Clement Attlee and the Labour Party were offering promised a brighter future for the working man. In a combination of archive footage and black and white interviews, The Spirit of ’45 tells the story of Labour’s radical reform of British industries and services.

Loach introduces key moments in the history of the welfare state up to the present day, from the nationalisation of the mines, transport, electricity and gas networks in the late forties to the push for renewed privatisation under Thatcher. Considerable attention is also given to the NHS in the wake of the 2012 Health and Social Care Bill. The documentary features interviews with retired and current health professionals who criticise the cost-cutting measures used by private contractors, which they believe limit the quality of care.

A lot has changed in the world since 1945, when Britain was ripe for socialism. The manufacturing industries were still thriving, and thousands of men found jobs rebuilding the damaged infrastructure and creating ‘new towns’. Most women did not expect to be employed; enslaved as they were in domesticity. But Labour’s successful and popular programme of reforms was as much about an ethos of community as about favourable conditions. The idea of each man as his ‘brother’s keeper’ was one which resonated with the public.

The Spirit of ’45 made me feel angry, in a good way. At times the film does feel like propaganda, although the excellent accompanying website offers an unbiased timeline and links to alternative political commentaries. In fact, little reference is made to the Labour party of today, other than one interviewee lamenting that it has been hijacked by the middle class. ‘The working class don’t realise their own power’, he says. ‘They no longer have a representative.’

The film ends with a rallying cry for a return to socialist ideals, imploring senior citizens to speak to young people about the past, and their potential to effect change. The Spirit of ’45 is a film with a sense of its own importance; a film which begs to be seen. Sadly, with some cinema ticket prices pushing a tenner, most of the parents of the 3.6 million children living in poverty in the UK today will not be able to afford to see it.